Car will not start, unable to figure out why.

57fury440 said:
What did it do when you hot-wired it? Did it just spin?
Click to expand...
Yes. if I spray in some starter fluid or add fuel down the carburetor I can get it to splutter after a while.

The car will drain a battery pretty quickly though, I have a charger but I can never get much power back into the battery with it.
I am tired of draining batteries at this point, I am on my 4th.
 
65Polara383 said:
Yes. if I spray in some starter fluid or add fuel down the carburetor I can get it to splutter after a while.

The car will drain a battery pretty quickly though, I have a charger but I can never get much power back into the battery with it.
I am tired of draining batteries at this point, I am on my 4th.
Click to expand...
Buy yourself a good charger. I have one of these and it works well.



Amazon product ASIN B007P7ABE6
 
65Polara383 said:
I have this: 2/8/15 Amp Automatic Microprocessor Controlled Battery Charger
Is it not any good?
Click to expand...
Well, if it's not charging the battery....

Harbor Fright stuff can work just fine, or can be junk. I have no personal experience with their charger, so I can't tell you if they are good or not. It should be able to charge your battery though.

The best thing is to not run the battery down that low as that does shorten the life, but it shouldn't kill it right away either.
 
I just tried to get the distributor loose for about 20 minutes. It wont budge. I feel I should mention that I am not weak, it is just really, really stuck.

Any advice on how to break it loose?
 
Wow! That must really be seized together. If you have a strap wrench I'd try turning it with that. A crowbar with some wood shims for protection might pop it straight up. And penetrating fluid.
 
twist it with a pipe wrench on the stem. just don't snap it off like people do with ford distributors. the distributors stick in every last ford V-8 but i've never seen this in a chrysler engine.
 
Wow... Never heard of that with a Mopar.

Soak it with good penetrating oil (I like PB Blaster) and try a strap wrench if you have one.
 
Got it unstuck using a hammer and chisel, turns out a bunch of old grease and stuff made the distributor stick to the engine block.

I am currently trying to adjust timing to get the car to run. It wants to start now, but I am unsure of the best way to fine tune the timing so that it does start.
Any tips or tricks for getting it to start up would be greatly appreciated.
 
Did you mark where it was before you moved it? Are you turning clockwise or counter clockwise? More info needed.. If you can remember where it was, mark it, then take a pic of where you have moved it to and update..
 
I have moved the distributor progressively counter-clockwise from where it started as the engine seems to sound closer to starting that way.

I did not make a mark, but the particular spot it was in is very easy to remember. Vacuum advance connection was almost perfectly horizontal when looking straight at the engine.
 
How much of a turn? 1/4? 1/2? I hate to tell you to keep going as you could get a backfire. Almost can mean a lot of things with timing and if you are not sure, I would not chance it. That's me though :)
 
Ok... I would go no more than a quarter and see what happens. You have a timing light hooked up ready to go in case she fires? Just curious, where is the canister when looking at the dist from the pass side? 12 o'clock-ish or other?
 
I started with at at about 12 o'clock from the passenger side. I do not currently own a timing light but I have a friend who does, so if it runs I will borrow that and get the timing dialed in properly.

Thanks for the advice, I will go see if I can get it to crank now.
 
Thank you to everyone for your help on this thread. I have not been able to get it to start yet, but it is turning over much better and showing signs of life.

I have a mechanic friend who is going to help me get it started next week. I will update this thread again if I need further assistance on this issue.
 
Read post 24 to static time it, it's not hard, then make sure the plug wires are in correct firing order on the distributer cap and going in the correct rotation.

If it's turning over much faster then your timing was way off.
 
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