No start

William Kelchner

William Kelchner

Senior Member
Last trip a month ago, about 25 miles or so. Go to start it this morning and $$%^%#@&. Started up and died and now just cranks away.
Dropped the bottom of the Zenith carb gas comes pouring out, filter clean as a whistle, cranks away but nothing. Have spark, fuel. This is about the last straw...........:mad:
 
How old is the gas? Will it start with starter fluid? Has it been in dry storage? Did you check your points for clearance and cleanliness? Are your distributer body contacts clean and shiny? Do you have spark at the points as well as the primary wire from the coil when you break the points? Spark, fuel, timing. If you've got all three it should start.
 
Check your points. My coupe did this to me a few times. I used a fine sandpaper to run between them and this seemed to help.
 
Yep everything is as it should be. Gas is not that old if I recall. Guess I'll take the carb apart tomorrow although I do not see any trace of dirt. The car left me once before after I installed this $$$ Zenith. Had gas pouring out of it - then it went away. The beast acts like it is out of gas so time to check the needle valve/float. I recall someone on the forum discussing an aftermarket float needle but I could not find the thread.
 
If the starter is turning it over faster than usual but not cranking it sounds like some valves are sticking and you are loseing compression. This happened to me because of ethanol fuel. It doesn't have to sit for long for corn fuel to make the valve stems sticky and cause problems like you describe. I would remove all four spark plugs . You may need help but what you need to do is have the engine turned over with the starter with the ignition switch turned off. Hold your thumb tightly oiver the spark plug hole while the engine turns. when the piston comes up on compression it should blow your thumb off the hole with a pop. Do this on all four plug holes. Any cylinder that doesn't blow your thumb off with a pop will have no compression and there wiill be a valve stuck in the open position.

I had two cylinders with sticky valves. I dried and cleaned the wet spark plugs and was lucky to get the engine started again. The engine was running ruff and skipping, I spreyed some PB Blaster in the choke of the carb while it was running and this seemed to help a little. I managed to feather the throttle and keep the engine running while i disconnected the vacune line at the top with the manifold end still conected. I bent the vacume line as needed and stuck the open end down into a bottle of marvel mystery oil. The vacume of the engine running will draw the marvel oil in to the valves and hopefully lubricate the sticky valves. After a short while, my car began to smoke and with careful control of the throttle with one hand and the vacume line with the other, the engine began to smooth out. If the valves are stuck hard you may have to remove the valve cover and work with them to free them up.I would first drain out all of the old gas and replace with a small amount of fresh gas with some marvel mystery oil for the valves. good luck.
 
you said you have Spark,I have a fuse block on my starter and I lift it when I'm not gonna drive any more for the day ,some times when I replace the fuse it doesnt make good contact and I watch the amp.meter when cranking,if it doesnt fluxuate I know its not making good contact and aint about to start,I know I need to replace it .Just sayin !
 
Like KP, I have had a problem with the fuse block....engine was running fine at idle while I was adjusting the idle mixture and just quit. Naturally I assumed it was a fuel problem and wasted a good bit of time looking at that before I got out my volt/amp meter and found I had volts at one end of the fuse block and nothing at the other end, meaning the coil was not powered. Fuse checked good. I jumped the fuse block and it started right
up and I finished adjusting the carb.

JAT
 
When you say you have spark I'm assuming you mean all the way thru the sparklers.. How did look when you took them out ??
If you have plenty of fuel to the carburetor, have you checked for fuel thru it ?? Its easy enough to loosen the bottom bolt and see how much is in the chamber..
I think the float valve you're talking about may be the Grose type.. I happen to prefer them.. I believe there are 2 different ones being sold now.. I've heard of some having troubles with the older style,, but,, I haven't.. I believe it is Bill Stipe that is now making his version of this valve.. It seems pricey,, but,, if it works as it should,, then its worth it..
 
Ok checked everything, good spark, plugs firing, took plugs out and good compression on all 4. What was strange was the plugs were always dry after these cranking bouts. :eek: Had Zenith apart, gas flowing from the tank, etc. Only thing I didn't do was open the GAV which I never had to do. Opened the GAV 1 1/2 turns and it eventually started and ran great - returned to GAV to 1/4 turn and everything is honky dory again. Thanks for all the input/advice.
 
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