Just bought a 70 skylark! But.....?

So this past Friday I brought home a 70 skylark. Fell in love when I test drove it. During the drive though the car just completely died! I thought for sure it was the alternator so I told the previous owner I would still buy if the alternator was bad. So we took it off and tested it at autozone. Sure enough it was bad and he bought a new one. After we installed it it would crank a bit but no start. I thought it could be the battery so we made a deal on a lower price and I brought it home. Well after putting a known good battery, it still would not start. Cranks but no start. So I tested the plug wires and noticed I was getting no spark. Replaced the coil (hei distributor was what I was working on by the way) and boom spark now. Tried to turn on but still no start. Now I'm frustrated lol. Pulled plugs and they were all caked up. So I just replaced them all but now my battery is shot. Probably due to all the cranking attempts. So tomorrow I will get another battery and try again. If I do and I still get nothing , what could it be? Any suggestions? Please help me out I need her running like she was!

 

I'm gonna say electronic since it has an hei distributor

 

Funny story. Well first we took a screw driver and put it in the boot after taking it off the first plug on driver side. Put it next to a metal bracket and watched it spark. Then my friend just held it there with his hand and I guess he had his finger too close to the opening of the boot and yea we had spark lol.

 

Well fuel comes up in the sight glass. Have taken off the air cleaner and looked in the carb, but I'll check tomorrow just to be certain. I'm hoping it was just that coil and bad plugs. I'm really gonna be lost if it's not. I mean the thing drove like dream during the test drive. Hell we even stopped and put fuel so we could continue. I've got big plans for this car to be my daily so I do appreciate your help. I'll give everything another once over tomorrow and definitely get me a meter and manual like you suggested.

 

I had a similar issue when I changed from points to hei/ You need to run a new cable from the firewall to the. The Hei needs a constant 12v. THus you need to replace the resistor wire. It's pretty simple and shouldn't take that long. Can't remember where I got he wire but you can PM Larry70GS and he can tell you where


You can follow this thread.

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...nd-HEI-System-function-tests-and-modification

 

Well I'll it was already installed and running great but I'll definitely follow it and see if it was all done correctly. Thanks.

 

fuel sight glass?

if your referring to one of those cheesy glass fuel filters you'll want to remove that before it burns the car to the ground.

 

Are they that bad?

 

Well when I crank it fills up that little glass so fuel should be getting to carb right?

 

Maybe, maybe not...there should be another filter where the line enters the carb. The glass filter is really not needed, the fact it's there may indicate a long occurring problem. You can look in the carb to see if gas is squirting. With the nose on these things it's hard to do. I like to keep a can of starting fluid around, one shot...try it...if it fires right up you know it's a fuel problem some place.

 

Ok cool will do, soon as I get off work and put that battery in, if it doesn't start I'll try that. Thanks!

 

Also is the 1970 Buick chassis service manual all series the one I should purchase?

 

sounds like no fuel to me. It was fun reading the posts as it went down.
yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, cheesy glass filter will burn the car to the ground. how did they even get that on the market,
The first thing I do is pull the air cleaner.
As far as you throwing parts at the car. it's not really a waste if it needed replacing anyway.
when you do find the fault is should run like a champ.
you have a good team helping you. only a matter of time now.

 

Thanks! Yea this forum was recommended highly to me and I'm glad I joined! I will definitely look in that carb to be certain

 

You need 3 things to run an ICE: fuel, spark, compression. If it suddenly died, its most likely a fuel issue. You had no spark, but now you do. So that rules out ignition. I'd say it's a fuel issue. Did the car sit for a while? Carb may have bad fuel, or none (fuel pump, filter, etc). Don't get the glass filters unless you want the car burnt to the ground.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

Ok so real quick I just wanna replace the damn distributor. For one it looks old and 2 I checked spark again and nothing! I just put a good battery in and still no start just crank. Now at my local autozone they have an hei distributor for a 77 Electra 5.7l. Will that fit right in?