Help! 1965 Caliente 289 just stopped running

[Mvannote]

My wife and I recently bought a very clean 1965 Comet Caliente that has just over 26k original miles for her that had been sitting for quite a while.

I removed the fuel line feeding the pump from the tank and ran the the motor from a separate gas can and it ran great.

So, to get it road worthy, we changed the fuel tank (which had some rust in it), cleared the fuel lines, installed a new fuel pump, hose and a new fuel filter. We also installed a brand new Holley manual choke 600CFM carburetor. When done, this thing fired right up and ran great.

A few days later, after working on her tail lights and installing a new brake switch, I went to start it and it wouldn't start. I spent the next 2 hours trying to figure out what went wrong. It's getting plenty of fuel, getting spark and it acts like it wants to start but won't continue to run. If I keep the starter engaged, it will continue to "act" like it's running but I know that's bad all together.

I'm stumped.

Could this be a timing issue? What could have happened to an engine that one day was running just fine and the next, won't even start????

[Joe Travers]

Take the distributor cap off and nudge the engine back and forth by the fan, if you can. If not, use a socket and drive bar on the crankshaft snout bolt in the center of the crank pulley. See if the rotor cap is moving in time with these nudges or if there is slack in the chain. While you're at it, get #1 on TDC and check the position of the rotor cap in relation to the distributor cap.

The Achilles Heel of the 289 is the stock nylon cam sprocket. It wears over time and teeth break off, causing the cam timing to jump off course. This is typical before 100K miles of operation, in my experience depending on heat cycles. This would be the first thing I would check before going any further, as not to bend a valve or crack a piston. If it checks okay, treat yourself to a beer

Joe

[Mvannote]

Take the distributor cap off and nudge the engine back and forth by the fan, if you can. If not, use a socket and drive bar on the crankshaft snout bolt in the center of the crank pulley. See if the rotor cap is moving in time with these nudges or if there is slack in the chain. While you're at it, get #1 on TDC and check the position of the rotor cap in relation to the distributor cap.

The Achilles Heel of the 289 is the stock nylon cam sprocket. It wears over time and teeth break off, causing the cam timing to jump off course. This is typical before 100K miles of operation, in my experience depending on heat cycles. This would be the first thing I would check before going any further, as not to bend a valve or crack a piston. If it checks okay, treat yourself to a beer

Joe

Thanks.

Took the cap off, tapped the starter from the solenoid and lined up #1. It is @ TDC.

[Joe Travers]

Still running stock distributor? If so, check point gap. You may have a failed condenser. That seems to be a common thing these days, judging by others' comments. Test both and lead to the points from coil.

Joe

[Mvannote]

Still running stock distributor? If so, check point gap. You may have a failed condenser. That seems to be a common thing these days, judging by others comments.

Joe

Stock distributor but has Pertronix electronic ignition installed. I checked and verified spark @ #1. Could the ignitor be bad and still produce spark when testing?

PicsArt_08-13-02.51.56.jpg (135.71 KiB) Viewed 1407 times

[Joe Travers]

https://itstillruns.com/do-test-pertron ... 93715.html

Joe

[Mvannote]

Took an ohm reading @ the coil.....1.5

[Mvannote]

https://itstillruns.com/do-test-pertron ... 93715.html

Joe

Step 1. Fine.

Step 2. After I removed the positive from the ignitor to the coil and jumped it to the battery, I tested it as described.

"Rotate the center magnetic sleeve of the distributor shaft by hand or by cranking the engine. The multimeter should show a fluctuation between battery voltage and zero volts. A constant voltage reading indicates a failed module or improperly installed Hall Effect shutter wheel."

I see no fluctuation of "Voltage to 0" as they described. I'm seeing a constant 3.9 to 4 volts. Looks like I may have found the culprit.

Going to buy a new kit and install. See if she fires back up.

Thanks Joe!

[Joe Travers]

Good luck! Hope it solves your problem.
Very glad your timing chain is happy.

Joe

[Mvannote]

Good luck! Hope it solves your problem.
Very glad your timing chain is happy.

Joe

Joe,

I think I found the real problem. I'm not getting any voltage to my coil from the resistor wire coming from my ignition switch.

I simply ran a wire from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the coil and it started right up and ran just as good as before these symptoms started. Remove the wire from the battery and she dies. Now I don't know if I have a bad ignition switch or a bad wire running from the switch to the coil. I'm hoping its just the ignition switch.

Back to the drawing board!

[Joe Travers]

Time to chase the rabbit with the multimeter. You are correct, the coil should receive 12 volts.
Check hot in and out of the switch in the Run position with the multimeter.
Chasing rabbits is for beagles.

Joe

[vicegrip]

You said it was trying to run with the starter engaged. The 2 small wires on the fender well mounted solenoid might be reversed....would cause this condition.

[Mvannote]

So the problem was this. BEFORE my problems started, I found that the previous owner had wired/tapped the positive side of the dash tach with the pink resistor wire feeding the coil from the ignition.

Once we removed the tach (not working correctly with electronic ignition) it had disrupted the power from the ignition to the coil. It was a fairly quick fix once I realized what I had done.

Yes, this pain in the @ss what brought on by myself.

Learn something new every day. Will only happen once.

[poboyjo65]

the previous owner had wired/tapped the positive side of the dash tach with the pink resistor wire feeding the coil from the ignition.

that is the way it is suppose to be with the old style tachs,so he did it right,but he may have added the pertronix later not knowing it may blow the tach or not work right.