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Long time lurker, first time poster. Before I start with the question, I figured I'd give some background on the car, and what I've done so far.
I recently picked up a 79 with a stock 12A engine with around 80k miles on it. Hasn't run in 12 years. I figured it would be a nice "bored on the weekends" project to play with, and so far, so good.
It was sold to me in the classic craigslist style, a la "ran when parked, needs fuel pump." I immediately suspected eveything else, and started from scratch.
I started with an almost complete ignition service on it (coils, cap, rotor, wires (NGK), plugs(BR7ET)), but did not touch the timing or points, figuring if it ran before, even badly, it should run now, and I can adjust it later. In the process, I discovered the leading condenser had blown up, burnt the insulation on the wiring to it and everything. The connector looked fine, and the rest of the wiring ohm'ed out, so I just replaced it, and the trailing one, while I had everything apart. Also, while I had the plugs out, I turned the engine over both by hand and with the starter, got six good solid chuffs out of it, and smooth turnover.
After doing all this, I decided to try and start it. Turned on the ignition, and sure enough, I didn't hear the fuel pump. So I start digging, checking things out. I had bought a new fuel filter and hoses, so I went ahead and replaced all that, and checked the pump out. No signs of distress. So I decided to dig into the wiring, and I was getting 0 volts at the connector. I found there was some kind of loose connection in the fuse block, a quick jiggle and the fuel pump was clacking away. I check and make sure that the pump is sending fuel to the carb, and it is indeed moving it, and flowing out the outlet side of the carb.
So, now, with all that information, and all that work, it still wont start. I get barks on starting fluid, and a bit of white smoke, but it will not run longer than a second or two.
My instinct tells me I'm up for a carb rebuild, but I want to run this by you folks to see if I'm missing something. From what I can tell, I have air, and I have spark, but fuel delivery is suspect. I go on the road for a ten day road trip tomorrow, so I have some time to figure it out, but I won't be back to work on it until then.
12 years sitting is a long time. You did a lot of sensible work and your approach is methodical. The one thing I did not hear you address was the tank. Did you drain it? Is the fuel in it still good? If you have not, then you may want to do that first. In the end, you may also have a carb rebuild on your hands, but I think you should try to eliminate any other factors you can because it can be a real mess trying to chase down issues after a rebuild, and that will be exponentially harder if there was another pre-existing issue left on the table.
Also, I will try to find you some "no start" links and post them up. Good luck with it all.
The one thing I did not hear you address was the tank. Did you drain it? Is the fuel in it still good?
There was not a significant amount of fuel in the tank. I did drain about a gallon out of it while changing the fuel filter, but in the process of changing that, it stopped draining out of the line. I did put five gallons of fresh gas in the tank before I attempted to start it. I only in the past day learned that there's a drain on the tank itself.
I've read the no start and ressurection threads in the 1st gen FAQ, and they've been good resources.
I might have been mistaken on that. I haven't actually looked. I didn't think I had one when I was working on the car, and then, when I discovered it might, I was on the road, and therefore unable to look.
Good news! I rebuilt the carburetor, and with a little coaxing, it started, and ran up to temperature.
Now I've got new issues. The tach never went from "voltmeter mode" to "tach mode", continuously reading at 12.5 volts. I had continuous coolant, gen, and engine oil lights (I checked the battery repeatedly, and the voltage at the battery never went below 12, even with the headlights on), and I was never able to read more than 5 volts at the leading coil, or 2 volts at the trailing. My hunch is voltage regulator and/or ballast resistors, but other opinions would be greatly appreciated.
In addition, has anyone else had permission issues with the Foxed.ca manuals? I'm looking specifically at the 1980 service manual (cross referencing the 1979 wiring diagram), and it won't let me access certain high-res sections, or the low-res full copy.
Thanks, for the help!
Smoke from initial start. It cleared up after a minute or so.
08-08-18, 09:33 PM
