Starting the CMP

[Tony Smith]

Ford or Chev?

[Joel Culliford]

Chevy

Sorry

[Bob Carriere]

That's the Holy trinity..... all 3 are needed to make the engine run....

Wild guess the ignition coil may be bad ....as it gets hot it may shut down.
.... do not overlook the cheap little condenser inside the distributor.

When it stalls and you crank it can you smell gas fumes by the carburator????

To quickly check if you haver a sparks problem....after it has stalled..... open the hood, remove the air filter and spray ( using a plastic spray bottle) fresh gas or dribble a little gas ...one or two ounces... in the carb while someone else is cranking the engine...... if nothing happens and the engine does not try to start then you probably have no spark....... if it coughs and sputters you may have a fuel starvation problem......

You could have a fuel starvation problem with...... dirt....swelled rubber lines (swelling is inside the de-laminated rubber tube and may not be visible) allows it to run on what is in the carb bowl but the system is not pushing enough fuel to keep it running.



Start with the coil and condenser........ that is were I would put the money!!

Can you describe what happens when it quits....... gradual sputtering then dies or just plain shuts down......

As a precaution if it has been sitting since last season........fresh gasoline will help.

Good luck and keep us informed of what you find.

Bob C

[Mike Cecil]

Have you checked the earth connections are nice and clean? Cold they may still work OK, but as they warm up with resistance, the 'juice' to the starter gets less, hence cranking slows down. I had that problem with a jeep I purchased last year. Cleaned all the connections and installed a direct battery to starter body earth cable, and it now works fine, vehicle hot or cold.

Mike

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Joel

Make a list of all the things it could be. Put the list in order of most to least expensive and time consuming to fix, then turn the list upside down and start with least. I often forget this approach and start taking things apart, only to find in the end that it was something really simple.

As Bob suggest it probably one of the three Air...fuel...spark.....

The cranking slowly though is something I would start with, is it really slower than normal cranking? If so disconnect the battery and charge it while you have it disconnected clean the terminals.

At the bottom of Bob suggestion he hits on one of the really big problems down here in the States "modern gas" goes stale very quickly. I make it a rule that if I can get the engines to run in the spring burn through the bad old gas and put fresh in before trying to fix rough running or do a tune up. Most often with fresh gas and ten miles on the road the problems go away.
Please let us know what it you find.

Cheers Phil