At first it died a couple of times while driving, but only after I would come to a stop. I decided to test this closer to home, and would start and stop several times around the block. Found that it would take off fine with a little bit of gas, but if gave it even a little bit of extra gas it would die instantly. After about three times of dying, it decided it wasn't going to start back up. It cranks, but sounds very abnormal. Sounds like something is loose and moving around, sort of a higher pitch rattling. Any ideas?

Also, the car would often die while idling, unless I put it in neutral or park at a red light. Or while going in reverse.
A lot of what I have red attributes a bad battery, but the noise I am hearing also concerns me.

 

A couple of general thoughts: Dying upon stopping, and not being able to restart it would usually be an electrical problem.

Dying upon stopping, and able to restart it usually means a vacuum problem. It sounds to me like you were having a vacuum problem, and now something else has gone wrong. Is the car in your garage? Can you have someone turn it over while you listen under the hood to get an idea where the sound is coming from?

 

First it would die while stopping at a red light, unless I put it in neutral or park. This is my first classic car, so when you say vacuum problem, am I wrong to assume that has something to do with the fuel lines?
The car is in the garage, yes. I will have to wait until someone else his home to help with the cranking while I am under the hood. But it sounds like it is coming from the front, possibly passenger side, but that's from an ear shot from the drivers seat, so not 100% sure.

 

Pull a plug off the distributor cap and have someone crank the motor while you arc the plug to the cap. If no spark, then in the distributor-coil, or module.

Sounds like a fuel problem-had a very similar issue 2 seasons ago...the Carb need to be rebuilt...Checked everything else in fuel system including fuel filter and fuel pump. It was the carb...ran fine after I rebuilt it....

 

I would check the heat riser.

 

Well, sort of. When the engine is running, and the throttle plate is closed (like at idle), the pressure in the bottom part of the carb/intake manifold is less than the atmospheric pressure because the engine is sucking in air through the very small space available when that throttle plate is closed. In this condition, you have "high vacuum". Your carburetor needs this vacuum to produce a combustible mixture when the car is idling. If say, you got a hole in the intake manifold gasket, you would lose your vacuum, and too much air would be going into the engine to make a combustible mixture, so the engine dies. Give it a good squirt of gas to restart, and it starts, but won't idle or dies at idle like you described above.

 

Your going to have to be the investigator or find an old mechanic. Key things to tell us are, last tune up, and how many miles on your motor since last rebuiild. It sounds like an automatic and if your car idles fine in nuetral and not in gear check your fluid level for odor and color. Your tranny could be going bad if you can track down the noise to it. I had a torque converter eat itself up and it was either in gear and moving or in neutral to idle. You can also grab things while its cold and see if any of the manifolds are loose or you see missing bolts. rubber mallets are great for tapping on things to see if they sound solid or loose.

If you can idle and the load of moving is killing it, you could have a dead cylinder so you could have a loose lifter thats rattling or a broken valve spring.

These are very basic diagnostic steps for tracking down an idle issue as well going from cheapest to expensive

You need three basic things for proper ignition
1 fuel
2 air
3 spark.
try these steps with the motor cold but dont start the car yet

Take off your air cleaner and look at your carb. Is the choke open slightly , full open or full closed. It should be closed (If you have an electric choke when you turn on your key you should have power to the choke and it should open after a few minutes. )

Pull open the choke butterfly and look into the carb throat and pull the throttle. You should see 2 streams of gas shoot into the throat near the top. thats your acelerator pump working. If you have a bad fuel pump you may not have enough fuel in the carb for these to work. Also check your fuel level in the gas tank, maybe your gauge is stuck and youre out of gas.

For spark you pull the plug wire at the plug and hold it close to ground or use a spark plug tool to actually see the spark. We are assuming at this point you have spark , but how much we dont know yet.

knowing what is normal is a key to tracking down a problem. So now if all those things seem correct, look for any disconnected hoses and give your distributor a twist to see if the cap is loose or if the distributor is loose. If you dont see any of these then now you should restart the car.

Hook up a timing light and start the car and get it warmed up. It should start and high idle without your input. if it does then thats good. if it doesnt then you have another clue. give it a few minutes to get warm then blip the throttle to see if it will idle. Dont let it die just see how low it can idle. check the choke, it should be full open. If it isnt then your electric choke is bad or your choke pulloff is bad. Have your timing light handy and see what its reading. If you can get down to 800 to 1000 rpm you can get a good idea of your timing.

look at your choke and see if its full open with the car warm, you can pull it full open if it isnt and that could be a problem. IF your timing doesnt even register with the light and you have a high mileage car, your timing chain could have jumped a tooth and screwed up your timing. You can mark the distributer on the shaft and on the intake then loosen it and rotate it to see if that helps your idle. If it does then you have a vacuum leak or jumped a tooth.

IF your car is high mileage and you havent done a tuneup you could have bad plugs, poorly gapped or burnt plugs. If your car is points, your points could be burned or worn. You could be shorting a plug wire and its causing a short under load. Your cap could be cracked or worn out. If its HEI your coil could be going out and your getting a week spark.

If all of those things look normal pull the valve covers and look for a missing nut on top of your lifters or a lifter sideways.

Keep us updated, and take pics of what you see so we can see

 

I agree with everything Rescue Rogers posted here, except I would add something to the above. You also need compression. Since the engine was running before, and now it's not, this is unlikely to be your problem as it is rare to suddenly lose compression in all of your cylinders. But if you are thinking of tearing down the engine, a compression test and a leak down test will tell you if you have major problems in one or more cylinders.

Compression test is easy. Just buy or borrow a compression tester, it is a little gauge with a nipple at one end. Take out your spark plugs, plug the compression tester into one spark plug hole, and have someone turn the engine over with the starter motor. The gauge will tell you how much compression you have in that cylinder. Move to the next hole and repeat. If valves have burned or rings have died or something like that, one or more cylinders will test as having zero compression.

 

good point

 

All of the suggestions above are definite possibilities. Another is possibly the throttle cable if you've replaced it. I recently had a similar problem with my 69. Car would stall, start hard afterwards, it would idle fine but struggle under load. Acted like fuel or ignition issues. Turned out that it was the new accelerator cable. It took a number of months before it happened. The rubber/plastic coating on the wire sheathing repeatedly softened from the engine heat to the point the crimp on the mounting ferrule no longer held and the cable slipped thru the mounting ferrule so the cable sheathing was acting as a stop limiting throttle movement and prevented setting the choke. To check it pop the cable off the throttle linkage, move the linkage to full open position and see where the cable stops when you move it to meet the stud on the linkage. Just a thought. Tim