Alright I feel kinda stupid posting this but here it goes. Yesterday I thought I ran the old girl out of gas. Was headed to town and when letting her idle up to temp I noticed the gas gauge was pinned below E. I know I had between 1/4 and 1/8 when I parked it so I figured gauge stuck fuse blown etc. three mile jaunt to gas station I'm all set! As I pulled out into the road the gauge came up and all is good till I went up a slight uphill rise about half a mile down the road and it died on me!!! Now I'm thinking maybe I am out of gas so I walk home and get some liquid gold in the red can. Put about four gallons in and no go and by this time the beast has drained my battery. Backed the Prius up to hook on the jumpers and an old motor head friend from 20 years ago just happens to stop and offer a hand. All we could do was get one big whoof pop out of it so he towed me back to my place and we chalked it up to I flooded it / killed the battery. Long story short 2 hours later of old back in the day stories he left and I went to hit the key to give it a whirl and guess what I did left it on from the tow home and now it's dead dead and raining. Got home tonight and hooked the bat charger to it and got it charged up. Hit the key and she did a couple pops through the carb and killed the battery again. Am I missing something here my old friend poked and we both joked that I hadn't worked on anything like this since we were in college and i had a my Prius trying to boost the Cutlass and the 455 rocket!!!!! It was a good sight wish i would have snapped a pic when i think about it now. anyhow no blown fuses its def getting fuel it must have fire due to the few backfire pops through the carb. It's been sitting on the charger for a bit and I'm gonna go try it in a few....Thoughts suggestions?
455 no go
- Thread starter Woodswagon1
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There are several possibilities here.....carb could be flooding the engine...timing chain mighta jumped a tooth...distributor might be loose...vacuum hose mighta come off....remember...fuel, fire, air...and a good tune, (timing) are all it takes to run a motor. Judging from your post, it sounds more like a carb with a stuck float or possibly the timing has been changed. Good Luck!
Thanks guys. I Know all about the fire tetrahedron, what I do know is the distributer is tight, the carb (prev to leaving me on the road) has been working fine especially the elec. choke kicker down at temp at drops to a nice idle (never remember this back in the day) this thing has been smooth as silk up to this point. Went out and tried it again a few ago and no go but I blew the gauge / what ever fuse while cranking it over. This thing is a beast when it comes to cranking it over too. I think the starter motor is bigger than the Prius motor!!! I took the next two days off from work (kids starting school) so I'm gonna figure it out. Hoping its not a jumped timing chain don't feel like peeling the onion back that far but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do hoping for the keep it simple stupid fix!!!
Well found my problem after I wasted an hour or so and 20 bucks changing the plugs. Pulled the cap and the rotor button spins round and round! Pulled it and the shaft right out of the dist. It appears that the roll pin that holds the gear on is missing?? Now my next hurdle I can't get the gear up out of the engine. Should this just lift up out I can pick it up prob 1/4 of an inch but it feels like its "locked" in some how?? Am i missing something here any thoughts?
sounds like the oil pump drive shaft is stuck in the gear. Olds motors have a hex drive shaft and are notorious for rounding off a bit and getting stuck in the gear like a rounded nut or bolt head in a socket. You probably arent able to lift it up more than a 1/4 inch because the shaft has a retainer on it kind of like a pressed on washer in between the oil pump and the block casting, I have been able to get them out in the past with a bit of force and some patience though I've never had the gear come off the distributor before. My best suggestion would be to somehow thread something into the gear and find a way to attach it to a slide hammer, it should come out fairly easily then. As for the washer holding the shaft it will fall into the pan but wont make it past the oil pickup screen , I have run lots of olds motors like that in the past and had no problems because of it.
if you turn the engine just a little opposite of the rotation the engine runs the gear that might work the gear up so you can remove it....remember you have to turn the gear when removing it. You might want to try some locktite thread locker on the shaft and see if that will bond the gear to the shaft so you can remove it.
Thanks I got it out finally long pair of angled needle nose pliers and held my youngest just right. Got it all back together hit the key and the motor sounded as if it locked up tried it again same thing. Took the distributer back out thinking something was binding / grinding all was good. Put it back in and left the cap off and turned over fine so I know it's not a mechanical issue. Put the cap back on with no power and the engine whirls over as normal. Put the power to the cap and same thing engine locking like the timing is 180 out. I've tried turning the distributer as far as I can in the opposite direction and same thing motor sounds as if its locking up?pontiacgp said:
I'd start over, take #1 plug out and make sure it's on the compression stroke and like up the rotor to #1
pontiacgp said:
X2 on this;
Also If HEI would check to see if the coil and/or the module has gone south. Sometimes the ground strap for the coil can become brittle and break, causing erratic, no starting issues. If it's got good cranking then doubt you have voltage drop to the starter.
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