Hello All,

The other day I moved the Dart ('70 Swinger 225 w/2bbl Carter) to another part of the yard while cleaning out the garage. I hopped in to move it back, forgetting I had the parking brake on, tried to go forward, the engine bogged and died. Thinking I was stuck in a rut, I started it again and gave it a little more gas, the engine bogged and died and hasn't started since. It will crank over and fire up but will die immediately. Sort of crank-crank-vrooom-dead. I've been reading some posts about other no start problems, but none has quite these circumstances. I don't have a lot of diagnostic equipment or particular experience with these older "fun" cars, but I'm willing to try fixing it myself before having to take it to a mechanic. Any ideas?

Thanks as always...

Adjusted the points lately?

-S/6

Nope, as I said, I'm pretty new to this. How would stalling the car affect the points?

I'm not sure that moving the car with the brake on caused the problem. Has the car been sitting long?
Does the engine die as soon as you come off the key (going from "Start" to "Run")? That would be a classic sign of a bad ballast resistor. Cheap and easy fix. Spares are fairly standard equipment in classic Mopar owners' gloveboxes and trunks.
Other than that ...
Choke adjustment could be off. It might be starting on gas from the accelerator pump shot, but not pull enough to idle.
Crud in the carb, blocking the idle circuit?

The points could effect the idle, but I would check the ballast resistor.

_________________
Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Thanks - I'm thinking it's a problem with the carb. It's been leaking gas from almost every possible orifice since I bought the car and I have another one coming (I wanted to get a "spare" before attempting a rebuild). The car had been sitting for a while too before I bought it, and the more I tinker the more I think the whole set up was slapped together pretty shoddily. Anyway, the ballast resistor is an easy one, so I'll pick up a couple just to have, then wait for the new carb to come and try that...

Yep. Ballast Resistor was the culprit (though the local parts shop had it under "coil resistor"). For once an easy solution. Thanks all for the advice. Slowly but surely I'm getting more confident at working on this car, and this board is the best source of info out there...

You mean I got one right?

On target like an olympian - thanks for the help!