I need some help with a rats nest removal gone wrong. I actually did it all about 3 months ago, and have gotten so busy in between then and now that I'm only now about to tackle my troubles.

I thought that I followed all the directions to a t in the tutorial, but something must be a miss. It won't even come close to starting, so I'm guessing a huge vacuum leak? I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the two lines to be clamped off to the catalytic converter. If so, would it help to just remove the cat, and weld in a pipe straight through?

Also, I don't care about cruise control, or any amenities whatsoever. ie, a/c -- So, are there any other lines that could be capped/removed to simplify things.

And, lastly, would anyone happen to know of, or be willing to list a rundown on how many/which lines exactly need to be capped/tee'd into? This would be a great checklist to compare my bad attempt to.

Thank you all so much in advance,

Josh

 

post some pictures
it wouldn't be the on the cat side that would just give you an exhuast leak.
if it is where it connects to the motor then that will be a problem.
here is a very good write up on removing the rats nest http://maz_tutorials.ten15.net/

 

Are you sure you made the blocking plate for the ACV out of suitable material?

 

I agree that this is the biggest problem, you need to use a pretty fat peice of steel on there... Initially I used a 16 guage chunk of sheet metal (stupid idea) and in about 2 minutes the plate was forced off the intake and the car barely ran, which makes sense cause there was a 4x3" vacuum leak... lol

Anyways just double check all of the vacuum lines. Did you happen to adjust the timing at all or anything when removing the rats nest? But I have to agree your problem is most likely a serious vacuum leak somewhere or something but we need some more details of what the car is sounding like and how its acting...

 

The tutorial spells it all out. If you cant follow that or if its unclear please let me know. I will try to fix it so others dont have a problem in the future. Lucky for you Im in O-town also and may be able to drop by and check out your car if need be.

 

BTW, the bodies on our car are JUST the right thickness to make said blocking plate out of

 

Thanks for the replies.

I'd say that could deffinitely be the problem. I believe i used 16 gauge aluminum for the plate-- or something like that.

As soon as possible i will get some new stock and redo the plates. I had planned to use this car's motor for a swap into a '78 midget that i got for free. But, I think the project is just too big for that. Fairly rusty body, pans, etc. So, I decided I'd get this car on the road for a few months. The body and interior are actually really good--or at least I think so--- considering I paid only 1k. All it really needs is a new set of tires and she should be plenty roadworthy.

But to explain the sound isn't too hard. When I turn the ignition, it basically doesn't do anything but engage the starter. Just the constant whirring of the motor trying to turn over. But it barely even sounds like it is trying to fire.--oh and I recently replaced the battery, so I'm sure it's getting good cranking amps. I've tried choke, no choke, and all that i can think of with no luck. I've most likely also fouled the plugs, so I am going to replace them before I do much more work on the issue.

Anyway, thanks again for the help, and if you have any more wise info to add, by all means do.

Josh

 

When I took my emissions off, I was still able to start the car with that blocking plate off. It ran like crap and it wouldn't idle, but it would still start and run above 2000. Maybe you accidentally flooded it? or messed something up on the carb when you took out that mess of vacuum solenoids?

 

There really isn't anything that could be messed up from removing the vacuum solenoids, I do agree though its just probally flooded from tons of cranking... Please also note how freaking hard it is on the starter to just crank and crank on it, I believe you are supposed to wait like 30 minutes between every few cranks to allow the starter to cool. But thats another story anyways these cars also tend to flood very easily, pull the plugs and crank the engine over by hand (counterclock-wise) to dump all the excess fuel out the plug holes, then towel off the plugs real good and reinstall and try to start the car up again making sure you replace the spark plug wires in the right positions

Here is what I recommended to another member with similar problems:
Heres what I would do:
1) check that you are infact getting spark to all 4 plugs (use a timing light)
2) ensure that you have no vacuum leaks anywhere...
3) make sure all your igniton stuff is up to spec, dist cap, rotor and stuff...
4) Make 100% sure that you timing is bang on.
5) if the car has not started and you keep cranking it and cranking it you will just flood the crap out of it.

Pull the spark plugs, if they are black clean them or if they are kinda old replace them (I really recommend this) and see if they are fouled. While the plugs are out turn the engine over (turning the front pully counterclockwise and you will probally notice a ton of gas pouring out from your engine... After this I would (***MAKE SURE TO DISCONNECT OR MOVE THE SPARK PLUG WIRES BEFORE DOING THIS***) crank the engine with the plugs out to ensure that you are getting good compression you will hear loud whisps, you should hear a clear 3 for each rotor. This means that you compression is good.

If the plugs are wet with gas make sure to either replace them or to whipe it all off with a rag. If the plugs are black from a rich mixture I take a battery terminal cleaning brush to the tips of them just to clean them up a bit, then blow off any excess carbon from the plug with a compressor. Then reinstall the plugs and make sure the spark plug wires go back on in the proper positions.

Hook a battery charger up to your car and try firing it up with some new spark plugs and see what happens. More details can really help to narrow it down but I assume that your car is just very flooded at this point.

Try the method I mentioned to unflood it and get back to me with your results.

Good Luck!

 

Even with massive vacuum leaks, that car should still start
Something else is wrong (and I missed that before! O_O)