Hey,

My slant is in desperate help, needs a major overahaul pretty soon, but you can still squeeze some extra miles out of it. Recently it was consuming a lot of gas, lacked lots of power and kept stalling all the time. But always started with the first crank.

This weekend I replaced the spark plugs with a set of autolite 985, also replaced the cables, rotor, dist. cap, air and gas filters, changed the oil, cleaned the carburator, increased a little the idle speed and moved just a bit the timming by turning a little bit the distributor. After that the engine run great, felt pretty good and everything was ok. The next day, the car started ok, and run great; but today, it just did not start. It was so frustrating, my slant never failed to start before, no matter how bad it run.

What could be wrong? Please help.


Ed.

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My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

First check for fuel, does gas shoot into the carb when you open the throttle?
Check for spark, do you have a goood strong spark at the plugs?
Re-check the timing.
DD

Thanks for your prompt reply Doc,

The carb does shoot gas, it was the first thing I checked... I will check the sparks tonight, but I assumed that with the new plugs, cables and rotor, other would be the problem.

Regarding the timing check, I don't know how to adjust it correctly, I have no mechanical training. Maybe that was the problem... although I don't get why it run great a day before.

Thanks Doc...


Ed.

_________________
My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

Are you saying it will "turn over", but not start and run?
If so, BALLAST RESISTOR!! Little ceramic, rectangular block, probably on the driver's side, or driver's firewall, of the engine bay. Might have one wire at each end, or two wires at each end. This can burn out without warning, leaving one stranded at the last place you turned off the car.

Roger

Hey Roger,

Yes, the engine turns but doesn't start. There is gas, I will check on the sparks tonight... Is there a way to test the ballast resistor? I remember I replaced it about 2 years ago as prevention the old one was still good... is that enough time for it to burn?

Thanks,

Ed

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My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

I checked the spark by pulling the cable that goes from the coil to the distributor and placing it pretty close to the engine to see if there was a spark (I pulled the end of the dist. of course and let the coil connected), then my wife cranked the engine and there was very little spark, a very weak one and at sometimes there was none. The point used to perform the check was the oil filler cap.

Can you tell me if the test I performed was right, and if so, what is the problem... did the coil fail? Also, why would it fail, it worked fine until I performed what I described in my first post of this thread.

Thanks guys.

_________________
My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

Easiest test for the ballast resistor is to replace it.
(Best $5 you'll ever spend is for a spare one to keep in your glovebox).
A ballast resistor can go at any time, and without warning.

A coil can also fail at any time, although not as often as a ballast resistor.

Your method of testing was probably OK, but sparking to a point on the block itself is better than to something that is attached to the block.

So now you have a weak spark condition. You haven't mentioned whether you have a point ignition or electronic.

- Change the points and condenser if it is a point ignition. If that doesn't help, change the coil.

- If it is electronic, check the grounds on the ignition box, then swap the coil, then the ignition box, with known good ones.

-Mac

Thanks a lot Mac, I will follow your advise and replace the ballast resistor today. My ignition is electronic, can you tell me how to check the grounds of the ignition box?

Ed

_________________
My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

If I remember the ignition box grounds through the bolts that hold it to the firewall. So you want to take off the box and clean any rust and corrosion in that area, both off the box and off the area where the tabs on the back of the box come in contact with the sheetmetal of the car.

-Mac

Thanks a lot Mac, will do it right away.

Will keep you posted.

Ed

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My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

Well, I replaced the ignition coil and the ballast resistor... so besides of that, now the car also has new plugs (autolite 985) and cables, new dist cap and rotor, new oil, new filters (gas, oil and air) and the carb was just cleaned.

After replacing the coil and resistor, I decided to go to the movies in my Duster... it started ok, not great, but ok, and run pretty good, had lots of power and felt very steady... but after around 10 minutes and in a stop light, the engine stalled... it started back with no problems, but after stopping and while driving in low speed the engine sort of misses and then stalls... After the movies it did the same, run pretty good for a while, then stalled and then run pretty good back again.

What can be wrong?

Ed

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My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

A couple of things:

- You may have a vacumn leak that is happening as things warm up. Check the bolts that hold the carb to the intake, they often loosen up and cause issues like this.

- You may be losing ignition as the car warms up... sometimes a bad ignition module will fail as it warms up. If you have a used module try swapping it in.

- It could be the pickup in the distributor. But someone else may want to pipe in here on whether they go intermittent. Mine have either run perfectly or quit entirely. Anyone?

-Or... something else!

-Mac

Yep, intermitten run , don't run , drove me nuts the first time that I installed all new electronic ignition, almost put the points distributor back in....It was a bad pickup coil.

Excuse my ignorance, what is that?...

I want to let you know that today I took my car to work... it was just perfect in the morning and at lunch, but while coming back home, the car hesitated cold and stalled after a big explosion that filled the engine bay with thick smoke coming out of the carb through the air filter assembly... maybe this can help you give me a diagnose of the problem...

Thanks again,

Ed

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My other car is... another DUSTER!!! .·.

The pick up coil is in place of the points in the electronic ignition set up......Just a little magnet. you must use a brass feelers gauge and set the gap at 10 thousands.