"A" won't start

Chris Haynes

Chris Haynes

Well-known member
Car was running great. Was parked for a few months now it won't start. Timing is correct. It is getting fire to the plugs. Carburetor has two miles on it since being rebuilt. Gas is flowing and filling the carburetor. Cranking the engine while spraying starting spray into carburetor gets no result. What am I missing? :confused:
 
Pull a spark plug and see if its wet. Verify again that you have spark by lifting a couple spark plug straps about an eighth inch or so, crank with ignition on. The increased spark gap will also help to clear a flooded plug.
 
eagle said:
Pull a spark plug and see if its wet. Verify again that you have spark by lifting a couple spark plug straps about an eighth inch or so, crank with ignition on. The increased spark gap will also help to clear a flooded plug.
Click to expand...

Done that.
 
Chris Haynes said:
Car was running great. Was parked for a few months now it won't start. Timing is correct. It is getting fire to the plugs. Carburetor has two miles on it since being rebuilt. Gas is flowing and filling the carburetor. Cranking the engine while spraying starting spray into carburetor gets no result. What am I missing? :confused:
Click to expand...
Points clean after sitting?
 
Verify getting a spark by pulling off the distributor housing and, with the points closed, open them with your finger while holding the end of the high tension wire from the coil about 1/4 inch from the head. If no spark then clean the points with 400 grit wet-and-dry paper. Snap the points closed with your finger after sanding them to get rid of any grit.
 
Might do a compression check to ensure a valve is not stuck from sitting. Common problem on the old Henrys.
 
He has verified spark, he's verified fuel. The only thing left is compression. Very unlikely to have no compression on any cylinder. The A will run on two cylinders. You're missing something. The A engine is very basic.
 
Check your manifold bolts. You may have a vacuum leak on your intake. It would have run fine when warm, and then as it cooled the gap would open. This would make it not want to suck the gas into the cylinders. This happened to mine a few weeks ago, so is something worth checking.
 
X2 on the intake leak issue description in post #12 above.

What were the ambient temperatures when starting? How old is the fuel?

Check for weak but still present spark and old fuel in combination??? Turn the lights on, crank the engine with the starter. If the lights go dim or out, the battery is in a low state of charge and/or you have a significant voltage drop occurring in the starting system. This robs voltage and current from the primary ignition circuit. You might try the hand crank to bypass excessive current draw down while cranking with the starter motor.

Can you describe your starting technique in detail?
 
Last edited:
Chris Haynes said:
Car was running great. Was parked for a few months now it won't start. Timing is correct. It is getting fire to the plugs. Carburetor has two miles on it since being rebuilt. Gas is flowing and filling the carburetor. Cranking the engine while spraying starting spray into carburetor gets no result. What am I missing? :confused:
Click to expand...

Guys, he said he sprayed starter fluid in the carburetor. I doubt it is a fuel issue. It should have made some noise with the starter fluid

Make sure you have spark at the spark plugs and at the right time. Make sure the rotor in the distributor is turning.
 
Chris Haynes said:
Car was running great. Was parked for a few months now it won't start. Timing is correct. It is getting fire to the plugs. Carburetor has two miles on it since being rebuilt. Gas is flowing and filling the carburetor. Cranking the engine while spraying starting spray into carburetor gets no result. What am I missing? :confused:
Click to expand...
Any reason why not starting???
 
Chris , “test don’t guess” … the old Sun slogan .
With the high tension lead held near as pro plug make sure you are getting a good hot blue spark. Do it with the rotation of the engine, not opening and closing the points manually. You might end up masking a connection issue. If it’s good you know your primary and secondary is working.

I know you said you had gas at the throat, which most of the time says you have enough fuel. Dows it cough at all? You might remove the bottom of the carb and make sure the main and cap jets aren’t clogged. Some of today’s fuel sitting at the top of the jets can clog in a month or two for sure . I would suggest che king that out. Making sure you don’t have stuck valves, which can make it hard to start…
I’m confident with a few pointed checks it should run .
I do the start up parties in our group where we take cars that haven’t run in years amd also Model A days at the museum. I’m use to the nuances but sometimes you have unique issues. Check the above out and let us know.
All the best !
Larry Shepard
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top