F falls flat

[2manycruisers]

I want to get this '71 fj55 running decent, but rarely have time to mess with it. I rebuilt the carb months ago and seem to remember it running okay for a while. But not in the past few months. It idles fairly well, but when I gas it, it falls flat on its face. The accel pump works, I checked that. Since I've had it, I adjusted valves, set timing, checked points, rebuilt/adjusted carb.
Today was the first time I've started it in a month or more. It wasn't warm yet, but if I hit the gas pedal without the choke it would just die. If I feathered the accel carefully at the carb, I could get it to speed up without dying, but it took several seconds to get it there.
Suggestions on where to look first?

thanks,
david

 

[nuclearlemon]

oem carb or aftermarket?

don't know carbs well, but i know altitude affected my crapa&^ edelbrock badly, along the same lines. second, i know the pig is a very heavy vehicle. i'm going v8mainly because i'm running 35's, but also because the weight of a stock 40 on 33s depressed me, let alone the weight of a pig on 35's, so it depends on what you think is pitiful for your peticular vehicle.

 

[Cruisergreg]

oem carb or aftermarket?

Who let Ige onto this forum?

David,

I've had problems that seemed to be fuel related that turned out to be electrics. Weak spark from bad dizzies or coils. Would idle, especially when cold, but then would die once I added throttle. Just a thought if all the carb details check out OK.

 

[SteveLCetc]

What does it do when warmed up?

 

[2manycruisers]

It's all oem stuff, emissions in place, also. Warmed up it does it too, but I don't recall if it actually dies, or just stumbles really badly. Greg, all my points-equipped Cruisers seem to have a weak spark, but maybe that's just my impression. I haven't arced a wire to see how it looks, but I'll look into that some more. Any more thoughts, let me know.

 

[Cruisergreg]

Maybe a screwed up vacuum or mechincal advance?

Only other thing I can think of is a fuel pump that is on the edge. I had one in my 60 that ran fine up to 2K rpms then would balk and almost die.

 

[alia176]

Is the mechanical advance working freely and does the diaphram hold vacuum? That's all I can offer!

Good luck.

 

[2manycruisers]

I'll check advance and report back after xmas.
thanks for the tips.

 

[SteveLCetc]

Fuel filter?

 

[2manycruisers]

Here's latest:
Pulled the dist., cleaned and lubed internals, both advances appear to be functional. Replaced the points. Reinstalled and can't get it to start. It was firing a little and it held on a couple times, but that's the best it did. There's spark and fuel, so I'm not sure what's missing. I tried another ignition and got nothing (it was semi-electronic and I might not have connected it correctly), put this one back and now I get nothing with it, too, not even an attempt to fire.

I'm 99.9% sure the dist. is in right. It's definitely not off 180, I don't think it could be off one tooth and still get the oil pump drive to line up without ever having turned the engine or pump drive. The gas may be approaching a year old, but the gas in my 45 is probably 3 years old and it still starts and runs fine.

Ideas? I'm too frustrated to mess with it right now, I started another project.

 

[cruiser88]

what does the sight glass show in the way of fuel.should be halfway

 

[cruiser88]

cold you should pull the choke a little,maybe a little less than a inch

 

[SteveLCetc]

Is it a good spark? Sounds like maybe the coil except for that. How's the dwell? Which rig is this? Be at La Cueva tomorrow morning, 10:00 for the snow run...

 

[2manycruisers]

float level is good, right in the middle. Not sure spark is very good. It's there, but not like in a later electronic or HEI.

 

[SteveLCetc]

I don't think that just because it sparks in air, it will spark under compression.

 

[BionicCruiser]

float level is good, right in the middle. Not sure spark is very good. It's there, but not like in a later electronic or HEI.

our Camry just had a similar problem. it would idle fine, but no power and would miss under load. Ryan pointed me to the coil (a fairly common Camry problem). spark is good enough under idle but not for a load. maybe look for an insufficient spark.

 

[2manycruisers]

Thanks for the coil suggestions. Larry gave me some info too, and is loaning me another ignition to try out. Hopefully it will run this weekend.