warrenmj

'66 L79 with Quickfuel carb and pertronix. Ran great last time I had it out about 6 weeks ago. About 3 weeks ago, during a break in bad weather, I was going to take it out but it didn't start. I was in a hurry so went in another car. We've had bad weather since then until today so I tried to get it running but it won't start. In fact it won't even try and start. The starter turns, the carb is getting fuel and I pulled a spark plug and cranked the engine to see if there was spark and there is. The distributor bolt and clamp are tight so timing should be good. What am I missing?

leif.anderson93

Could it be something as simple as flooding the engine?? When you pulled the spark plug, was it wet with fuel?

warrenmj

It's possible, but I don't think it likely as this is the second time in 3 weeks I couldn't start it. Since I've never had it flood on me before, I don't think I would do it twice in a row. It's been sitting for an hour or so and I will try it again in a little while.

MelWff

when you open the throttle by hand do you see gas squirt out of the accelerator pump?
does the carburetor have a choke and is it closing/adjusted correctly?

warrenmj

Yes, good squirt of fuel when opening the throttle by hand and choke is working properly. When I pulled the plug to check for spark, the plug color looked good, but was a little wet, probably due to not starting.

jimh_1962

bad coil? I think you can check it by so many ohms running across it. If I remember right.

I think it is 1.5 to 1.7 Ohms

cblankin

pertronix died

jimh_1962

I think you can check it by seeing if there is spark from the coil.

DansYellow66

Adequate fuel is pretty easy to judge visually. Plugs may spark but are harder to judge as to adequacy to fire an engine. I would consider swapping your points back in and see if it will fire.

ILBMF

I would first remove all the plugs, brakleen them, check the gaps and try to start again without touching the throttle. Sometimes the spark may be visible, but weak and barely sparks at all under compression. If it won't start after cleaning the plugs it's probably the coil or Pertronics, but I would think the Pertronics would fail all together and not give just a weak spark.

warrenmj

Then why do I have spark?

GTOguy

You need fuel, compression, and spark occurring at the right time to have an engine run. I would verify that number one is firing at TDC when it's supposed to. Possible carbon tracked distributor cap, bad rotor, etc. It sounds like you have fuel and spark, but it ain't happening at the right time.

cblankin

Just because you have a spark it does not mean you have a spark hot enough to ignite the fuel. I would put in a set of points to see what happens.

warrenmj

I think you are correct. I didn't mention earlier that after cranking the engine I couldn't find my multimeter to check the coil (must have loaned it to someone) so I swapped the coil to one I had on the shelf and tried starting it again to no avail. I borrowed a meter from a neighbor a little while ago and the one originally in the car looks to be bad (2.4 Ohms) and the one I swapped in read 1.6. I think Leif.anderson93 was correct in that it is probably flooded and wouldn't start even when I put the good coil in.

I will follow ILBMF's advice tomorrow and pull the plugs, clean and gap them and see if it will fire up. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

phil2302

It has been my experience that Pertronix and other similar electronic systems are all or nothing.
Sounds fuel related maybe a float malfunction?

ILBMF

If what warrenmj stated is correct, it sounds like maybe the coil was bad and caused a flooding condition, but I guess we will find out soon.

SW Vette

Try cranking it with your foot to the floor for 5 or 10 seconds and see if at least you get a pop. That's how you start a flooded engine.

wraplock

Just be careful here. All this pumping of the throttle is putting more fuel into your cylinders without firing. That gas will leak down past your rings and find it's way into your oil pan. I had a buddy blow a valve cover off his Mustang engine this way.

bknd

Tons of great advice here. You stated you have a quick fuel carb. Does your carb have sight windows to verify the float level? A stuck needle(closed) could be your problem. Very strange though that you don't even get it to fire a little bit. I'd expect that several pumps with what fuel is in the carb would at least get you a sputter. Seems like you've pretty much addressed the ignition. Best of Luck!

GTOguy

Very, very easy to determine if the car is flooded.