I have a friend who has a 63 Dart with a 170 slant. She says that after running for a few minutes, it just dies. Battery is only about 1 year old and the alternator even newer. Rebuilt carb she says, but I'm not sure who did it. Anyone out there know what is the most likely culprit? I appreciate any help you can give.She doesn't drive it very often, so I told her to have the battery checked. It might have gone bad from sitting discharged too long.
Thanks,
Wylde Bill

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63 Dodge 330
00 Sportster Rigid Bobber
05 Dodge Stratus (Wifes)

Mis adjusted choke, bad carb. and/or water in the gas could be the problem.
DD

Really bad coil?

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Dont overlook a fuel pump or Carb fuel bowl float.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Potato in the tail pipe.

Chances are good the rebuilt carb is faulty. I believe the car is dying as soon as the choke opens. One of the problems I've found with Holley 1920s is a blocked idle feed restriction. It's difficult to get to this restriction and accessing it is not part of a normal carburetor overhaul. If you have a known good carburetor I would try that first.

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Joshua

If this is a points car I would look at the condensor.....and ballast resistor.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I have seen this happen with clogged idle passages too. I removed the throttle air screw and used a compressor to blast air through the hole. It wouldn't last for more than 5 miles, but it let me know where the problem was.

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Chuck Rivers, Webmaster

Would that be russet, Idaho, or sweet potatoe? They all effect exhaust systems differently. Actually I suppose something in the tailpipe could be true.

I had an early Valiant once that had the fuel inlet needle jam up. It would quit after a few minutes. Then, while parked, pressure in the line from the pump would trickle just enough fuel into the bowl to fire it up again later for a minute or so. Of course, a carb rebuild fixed it.

Don't worry about the battery. If there's enough juice to start the engine each time, there's enough to run it for more then a few minutes.
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jailbroken

Here a true story...

We purchased a 66 Dart that had been sitting for a few years, got ii running, fix the brakes, etc.

When we test drove the car, it had no power and would load-up & stall-out and be a pain to restart.
We trouble shot everything, swapped on different carbs, distributors... all kinds of stuff, same problem, it ran for a while and quit.

Somehow we came around to the idea of plugged-up exhaust so we disconnected the head pipe from the exhaust manifold and took the car for a drive, uncapped... It ran great.

Traced the problem back to a plugged muffler, a baffle had come loose and was blocking the outlet.

Another funny plugged exhaust story...
Spun a car out on an icy road. backed it into a snow bank at 30 MPH and stalled the engine. No real damage but the car would not restart until we dug-out and cleared the snow-plugged exhaust pipe.
DD

I was working in a repair shop in Tulsa, OK more years ago than I care to count. A Pontiac came in and would not run. It sputtered and backfired and would not gain RPMs even in nuetral. The head mechanic jumpsed to the conclusion that it, being a Pontiac, had jumped time so he proceeded to replace the tining set. When he got it all buttoned up and started it, the symptoms were the same. After some head scratching and troublshooting he decided the exhaust was plug. He pulled down the pipes and found that the inner wall of a double wall pipe had collapsed, plugging the pipe almost completely.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

I knew a guy with a 71 Vega and an ex-girlfriend. He spent a lot of money fixing a potato in the tail pipe. It’s not funny but I can’t help but chuckle when I think about her driving by every day to see if he’d found it yet.

You can see it plain as day from the road. There’s the potato, and the hoods up. Next day the cars on blocks - there’s the potato untouched. Next day the car is back down, and the hood is still up. He’s bumming rides and walking to work for two weeks and all he needs is a corkscrew and a different view of the car.

You just don’t ever think to look for a potato in the tailpipe.

Danny