Re: [Chrysler300] 1970 Hurst Haj

["DeBusk Thomas L." <tleed@xxxxxxxx>]

Isn't a tune-up supposed to make a car run better? I changed points, condenser, distributor cap & rotor, spark plugs & wires, and the result is that my 300 Hurst, which ran poorly before, now won't start at all. Actually, it's trying very hard to backfire through the carburetor.

I was extremely careful to gap the plugs at exactly .035". The points were at .019" right on the high spot of the lobe. I checked and re-checked the firing order several times. 

It did occur to me that the timing might need to be re-set. The plugs I pulled out were all gapped at about .025" (what the ?!!), and I'm not sure the points had any gap at all. At least they didn't appear to. So I suppose that might've affected the dwell/timing. But I couldn't get it running long enough to get a timing light on it.

I did discover that the distributor hold-down was just snug, not tight. So I could move it by hand with very firm pressure. Picture this: me, trying to start the car, to the sound of backfires & misfires, then leaping out of the car, trekking around that huuuge door to the other side of the car to move the distributor a couple of degrees, in the vain hope that it would fire long enough for me to spin the distributor into a happier position. I made that journey 50+ times. Finally decided to stop punishing the battery. It ran a couple of times, but I never could find a spot with the distributor that made the engine happy, and I worked it through about 20-30 degrees a few degrees at a time. Didn't have my timing light with me, but I would've had a hard time keeping it running long enough for that to be useful if I had had it with me.

So, besides commiserating with me online, I'm open to helpful suggestions. I've been in this sort of wacky-timing time warp situation with other engines and I've never extricated myself without other onsite adult supervision before. Obviously I have to get it close enough to run so I can get my timing light on it. But what's a methodical way of doing that, besides the trial-and-error approach I attempted tonight? If you weigh, please feel free to talk down to me and use small words. I'm pretty sure I'm missing something fairly obvious & easy.

Another question I have is: is it possible to get too much dielectric grease on the spark plug boots? When I put it on the boots I was operating under the assumption that any excess that made its way down to the metal contacts would get squeezed out from between them. Is that faulty thinking? Do you really have to be careful to get it just on the boot itself without allowing excess to get to the metal? Or can too much dielectric grease interfere with spark transmission and cause the sort of stubborn-mule act I'm getting?

Thomas DeBusk



On May 6, 2012, at 6:58 PM, Thomas DeBusk wrote:

> Where is the flasher relay on my 1970 Hurst?
> 
> [I'm stomping out niggling "little" problems (like a frozen front brake caliper) so I can get to Chattanooga. The distributor cap has one wire "welded" into it by corrosion. Others just fall out. Points had a hole in the stationary side. You know: little stuff.]
> 
> Thomas DeBusk
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> 



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