Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Re: [Classic Mustang] 289 won't stay running



Same thing happened to me a while back.  I had to replace the coil, and then all was OK.
 
Hans Hansel
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:52 PM
Subject: [Classic Mustang] 289 won't stay running


Hey all... I have (what I hope) a couple of quick questions..

This past weekend I picked up a car that has a 67 289 under the hood.  I got it on the road on Monday and when I took it up to the gas station, a couple of miles from the house it starts to spit and sputter and then all out quits.  I thought at first it was fuel since the gauge does not work so I limped it back to the house filled it up and took off again only for it to die on me again.

Now on the first trip when it quit.. a minute later it fired right back up and stayed running pretty much until  I got back to the house.  Second trip when it died it would crank but would never catch.  After sitting for a few minutes it finally started and I was able to get it home.

When I got it home I got under the hood and noticed that the distributor was loose (very).. so not having a timing light I fiddled with it while it was running and did it by ear (once I get a timing light then I will do it properly). Hoping that it may have been a severe timing issue (or it was moving while I was driving), I took it out for a test drive and it lasted about as long before it quit on me again.  I contact the prior owner and he said that he purposely left the distributor loose.. and for the life of me I cannot understand why (someone please educate me on how this could ever be a good thing).

Upon inspecting the cap, rotor and what not I found them to be a bit corroded but nothing too terrible... but today I went out and bought the usual new cap, rotor, points, condenser, and plugs (did not buy the wires since they look pretty good... but I am not above buying them should it need it).

I am not smelling gas so I am thinking that it is not getting too much gas... so what I am going with at the moment is that it is not getting enough spark.  Hopefully this will fix it.

Now after all that... my questions...

Am I on the right track?  Are there other things I should be checking?

And only because I have not gotten underneath it yet... are the timing marks on the flywheel or am I just not seeing them up top?

Thanks in advance.

- Michael



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