stevelegel

Last fall, I drove the 1970 from my workshop (where it languished up on the hoist for 10 years while I raised family etc.) It coughed, and stalled, and ran rich, but it ran. Before winter I had the paint done, and front suspension redone, drove it back to my shop where I spent the winter reassembling trim and interior. However I was not able to resolve the engine performance issue. I assumed the carb was clogged with gas gone bad.

A more knowledgable friend, well meaning, took a look for me. Said my points were shot, and maybe the plug wires were hooked up wrong. That seemed odd, because 10 years ago it ran great, smooth, not smelly, no stalling, no backfiring. So I changed the points, and got out the manual, and eventually rerouted ALL 8 plug wires.

then it did not run at all!!!

Tonight I paid a mechainic to make a house call to my shop. He solved the mystery. He used a pipe wrench to turn the crankshft to timing mark, then opend the distributor and found the rotor pointing opposite of number one spark plug wire routing. The distributor had been installed 180 degrees wrong. I can't remember if I did it, or the engine rebuilder, and it ran well then, probably because at the time I (we, whomever) figured out that the plug wiring firing order had to be the reverse image of the manual. Which is what we did tonight. Engine starts, runs rough, not smokey, but real rich. On pedal to the metal test, a big clod of grass clippings blew out the exhaust pipe. My guess is a bird got into the building while the car was covered and on the hoist and set up a nest inside the muffler where I could not see it, and then I put the rectangular exhaust tips on after installing the rear valence. Car runs better now that it breathes out the back end too!

We pulled the plugs and decided to replace them. Also I had been advised to install Accel 10 mm wires. They are bulky and awkward and not really long enough on # 7 and 8, so I'll buy a new set of plugs and a stock set of replacement wires, and install those. Then the mechaninc will come back and we'll try adjust carb settings and timing. I've only been adding two gallons of gas at a time (still that's 7 bucks) and the carb seems to run better with each infusion of clean gas. I think I might add a couple cans of gumout to see if it clears the small ports inside the carb, short of overhaul.

Remaining finishing touches are new vinyl top, install polished rear deck and lower winshield trim and lower rocker panels. Original AC will be a next year project.

I am very excited to drive it.
Steve