ssx2james

have a 71 cutlass with a 350 auto. went for a drive and about 2 miles in the car died. it sputtered and acted like it was out of fuel. only drive about once a week and the gas thats in there now is several weeks old. replaced fuel filter with no luck, still dies. help thx james

Octania

You know how to tell if there is in fact fuel in the carb, right?

ssx2james

yes fuel is being sent to carb, can see it squirt. fuel gauge shows about 1/8

oldcutlass

Then the next thing is to check for spark.

ssx2james

was driving car the week before, no problems. ran errands through out the day. parked it went to drive a week later then this. car starts runs for a few minutes then sputters and dies.

oldcutlass

When it dies, immediately remove the air cleaner, look down into the carb and see if its spraying 2 solid streams of fuel when you operate the throttle linkage. If you have fuel, then hook a volt meter to the coil + and see if you have 12v with the key on. If you do, leave the meter hooked up and run the engine until it dies while monitoring the meter and see if the voltage is going away. Its a process of elimination, engines need fuel, a properly timed spark, and air to operate. One of them is disappearing.

ssx2james

ok thanks for the replies

chip-powell

How old are your hoses? When I first bought my '71, it had a sputtering issue. That was when I found that most of the air lines going to my carb had some degree of dry rot. After replacing them (and rebuilding the carb), things smoothed out quickly.

ssx2james

had car towed to shop, waiting to here whats wrong

Octania

And, this check was made during a misbehavior event, right?

One of my favorites- rotted '69 Cutlass
fuel line from tank to engine had rusted away. The best [most ghetto] fix for that, next to 20 ft of rubber line [which has been done], is a rubber line patch where the steel is wet due to leakage.

This was above the rear axle where line goes between body and frame. Body mounts and frame are all rusty, so line got pinched between the two and put a hole in it. It would run- barely.





Rotted frame and body pinched a poor fuel line repair to death.

You could run it on the fuel in the carb, whilst directing the fuel pump output into a receptacle and watch for quantity, bubble, dirt, crud, etc.

ssx2james

was told the fuel pump was good and that the distributor was bad. waiting on part. thx for the responses.

ssx2james

ok got my car back finally. it runs good, but while looking under the hood i noticed the oil dipstick not all the way in. tried several times to push all the way in but no luck. does any one know how long the oil dipstick should be on my 71 cutlass with the 350. thx

oldcutlass

So what did they do for your bad distributor? Heres a thread on dipsticks:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...asurement.html

ssx2james

back in august it was running rough hesitating. had the wires plugs and distributor replaced. ran way better .then couple weeks ago i had the car start but not staying on, they said it was a faulty distributor, replaced under warranty.

ssx2james

here we go again. car will not start. had someone ck for spark and he said it was weak. gonna replace with a hei setup.

oldcutlass

You need to figure out why it won't run before upgrading. Start with reading this:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-ignition.html

ssx2james

thx for the response. i am not a mechanic, that info is way above my head. on a good point though, the hei distributor was given to me, so i figured it will at least run better if indeed it is the distributor.

ssx2james

does anyone here recognize my car? bought from richardson tx in early 2002

ssx2james

got car back fri. runs like a champ

oldcutlass

What was the problem?

ssx2james

another bad distributor, replaced with a hei unit. i guess it got moisture from sitting to long. i keep in carport with a car cover and maybe drive once a week. the points didn"t like it. got fixed under warranty.

oldcutlass

Cool