My 72 convertible started missing badly before the engine quit. The engine does not appear to be firing and does not come close to starting. I have spark to my plugs (have verified by hooking up plug wires to extra plug). I can see gasoline being pumpled onto the carburator. The timing might be slightly advanced when I try to start it, but it appears close. Does anyone have any idea what could be the problem? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Well usually what you need to produce combustion is air, fuel, and spark. You are sure you have spark? I would imagine you have air, and the other essential part is fuel. The timing might be off, but I would imagine it would run, unless it jumped time so badly. I say this because you said it ran, but ran poorly right before it quit. Do you have any gas smells when you try to start it? Jeez I am not sure, hopefully someone else will be along to help out also.
Sounds like you might have stripped the timing gear, something to check out. Pull off a valve cover and see if both valves are closed on a cylinder every other time it is TDC. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
I had the same problem. I checked and had spark from the plug but found out it wasn't enough to fire the engine. I replaced the ballast resistor to the coil and solved the problem.
well since it was running poorly and quit id go with a timming chain too but,Ive seen points go bad and do the same thing.I would check compression and do a good tune up if the compression is good.One easy check is pull off the dist cap grab the balancer and move it about one to two inches in a back and forth motion.Watch the dist rotor it should move with just very little movement of the balancer. If not the chain is either broke or in need of replacement.
My 72 convertible started missing badly before the engine quit. The engine does not appear to be firing and does not come close to starting. I have spark to my plugs (have verified by hooking up plug wires to extra plug). I can see gasoline being pumpled onto the carburator. The timing might be slightly advanced when I try to start it, but it appears close. Does anyone have any idea what could be the problem? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
First, welcome aboard CAC.
Distributor turns at 1/2 speed of crankshaft. With ignition Off ... remove cap ... put a socket & handle on harmonic balancer center bolt ... view points cam ... points cam has 8 lobes ... pull handle and rotate crank clockwise when viewed from front ... watch the points cam while you are pulling ... pull it enough to get slack out of timing chain/gears ... then pull it until points follower is directly on top of a points cam lobe ... make note of exactly where the follower is ... then pull handle exactly 1/4 turn ... distributor should turn exactly 1/8 turn and the follower should be directly atop the "next" points cam lobe. Make note of points cam & follower position. Then pull the crank through exactly two (2) complete revs ... the points cam should have rotated exactly one (1) full rev and the follower should be indexed exactly at same position at you started. Make note of points cam & follower position. If the points cam lobe and follower do NOT index as they should, then you'll probably need a timing chain set and/or distributor timing gear. FYI, motors from your era often have an OE upper (cam) timing gear that is sheathed in plastic (for quietness) ... and those plastic sheaths embrittle with age/heat and routinely fail ... when it does, it throws timing WAY off and becomes VERY erratic. Those bits of plastic from sheathed cam gear fall right into the oil pan and tend to clog the oil pump pickup ... bad. Just as others have found, my 71 did exactly that. When replacing timing set, I suggest do not use quiet/plastic sheathed cam gear ... the all-metal sets are quiet enough for a rumbling 72. G'Luck.
JACK:gap
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