kevin.horton

Hey all,


Been awhile. Thought I would start here first.....my 72 Cutlass will turn over fine, (new battery last year, pulled it for the winter), put the battery back in today, charged it, and went to start the car. Turns over fine, but no fire. In looking at the intake, it looks like there is fuel sitting on the intake, and there appears to be fuel leaking around where the choke is. Intake is all wet with fuel there as well, but it certainly acts like it isn't getting any fuel. Any thoughts? Ran fine end of last year. Thought I'd start here first. Thanks in advance.


Pic1_olds.jpg

oldcutlass

Hard to tell if thats fuel or oil on the manifold. As far as it not starting, the engine needs air, fuel, and a well timed spark to run. Perform the following.

With the engine off take the air cleaner off and operate the throttle while looking down the carb throat. If you see 2 solid streams of fuel spray in there, your getting fuel.

Next check for power at your positive post on your coil. If you have power there, then check for spark at a spark plug.

cjsdad

Sounds like you have plenty of fuel. Follow OC's advice and verify in the carb. If it is fuel, check for spark.

Junkman

It might be corrosion on the points from being stored over the winter. With the distributor cap and rotor off, the ignition key in the on position, put a screwdriver between the points, and check for spark. Sometimes all it takes is this to clean the points. If it ran when parked, it should run today, assuming that the gas hasn't gone bad. The other think is that you might have flooded the engine, and the plugs are so saturated with gasoline, that they can't produce a spark to ignite the gas in the cylinders. If that is the case, then hold the accelerator pedal to the floor, and crank the engine, to remove the flooding condition. I will sometimes use a large screwdriver dropped into the carburetor, while pushing on the accelerator rod to open the throttle plate, and then go to the drivers seat to crank the engine. When it starts, I pull the screwdriver out, and the car will drop back down to an idle. Everyone that works on engines has their own methods, and this one is mine. This past month, my Chevrolet was running poorly, but ran fine when I put it up for the winter. I had to rebuild the carburetor, and it still didn't run a whole lot better. I put new spark plugs into the engine, and all the problems went away. The old plugs were about 4 years old, and possibly 4 or 5 thousand miles. Plugs are cheap, and easy to replace. A poor running engine will waste gasoline, and a good running engine will save you money over time. Spend a little on a tune up, now, before the driving season starts.