My '70 'lark convertible is acting up a bit. This only happens at idle or off idle...never at cruise. It begins to miss, like someone has turned the key off and then back on. Yesterday, on the way home from work, it died at a stop light, then restarted. No other problems. Later that night, 2 minutes from home, I hit the gas after turning into the neighborhood, and it misses badly, backfires through the carb and just runs horribly for about 20 seconds, then, it's fine. It never seems to matter if the car is hot or cold. It feels like an electrical problem, like the spark just goes away, then comes back. I cannot imagine a fuel problem creating this condition. I tuned it up when I got it last year...plugs, wires, points, condensor, cap and rotor. It runs like a dream other wise. Any ideas on some trouble spots where I may be getting some sort of short? BTW, last night, when it was sputtering, the headlights never flickered, so it isn't complete electrical failure, just ignition. Any help is appreciated.
I guess you've gone through it and made sure everythings tight. if not check everything, I had an old blazer that would do that because the number 8 plug wire would constantly fall off of the plug. It sounds like maybe you have carbon tracking in the cap or a bad wire. spray the wires with a little bit of water while engines running. look for arcs. It sounds like somethings grounding somewhere it's not supposed to when the engine's under a load.
Definitely sounds something electrical. Start off with checking/replacing plugs, wires, rotor, and cap, and coil. There's not a whole lot that can go wrong with these old cars compared to a newer one with it's computer/sensors, blah, blah, blah. Also check and make sure you haven't broken a spring on the distributor. Nothing like extra pieces in there to mess things up.
i used to have a 71 riv. that did that. turns out the timing was way off and the carb wasnt set up correctly. i was reving it up from the carb one time and it backfired back up through it and it scared the hell out of me! dicided i should quit tinkering for the night. pete
OK, the problem is fixed. It was the points and/or condenser. I put a voltmeter on the primary wire to the coil and it never wavered, so I knew I didn't have a short/ground problem with that wire. I ended up replacing the points/condernser and it runs beautifully. I really expected it to be the coil... I barely made it home last night. It decided not to run just before getting on the freeway. 15 minutes of head scratching and wire tigging yielded no results. I just left the car running and it finally decided to run OK. 15 miles late (1 mile before my exit) it started to act up again. I nursed it home. I got a lot of backfiring out of the tailpipe. Funny, nobody was tailgating me! I really didn't expect to make it home, but she got me there. Thanks for your input, guys.
Never lose faith Mike! Buick performance is only secondary to Buick reliability :TU: Glad you found your problem. :beer
