Do yourself a favor and buy good quality points and condensors like Accel's. I have a buddy who has a '65 Olds who used the SMP brand with the 1 piece points and condensor. He and I ended up swapping in his old set on the side of the road . While your at it buy the Accel dist cap. They are at least 50% thicker than the discount brand and use much better materials. You really do get what you pay for.
I have a dwell meter and find that a good old fashionedfeeler gauge works just as well. Just make sure youre on top of the cam.
Yep,,, what mark and dad says..... and also,,, I have found several dwell meters in the pawn shops,,, they say they cant get rid of them because there is no call for them anymore.....:Brow:
Not a bad idea; - my portable dwell meter that I keep in the trunk just crapped out...guess I'm going to visit a pawn shop and hopefully don't run into a "Pawn Stars" wannabe...
I would worry that a vintage electronic instrument that was in a tool box and is now in a pawn shop might be a risk. The Actron from Sears is not expensive.
Still haven't gotten around to the tune-up but I am presented with a new issue. When I start the car in the morning it starts right up like a champ. If I turn it off and start it immediately it start rights up. HOWEVER if you let it sit for 10-30mins it turns over FOREVER then it finally starts. I read it could be compression but the fact that it starts in the morning with no problem (sitting for long ass time) it kind of leads me to believe/hope it's something else.
That doesn't look like an easy fix! Any other possibilities? Oh and another thing I noticed is a small smell of gas sometimes. I checked the fuel lines and didn't see anything wrong. It's mostly when you get on it.
Back when your car was new,,, there was a ''major tune up'' and a ''minor tune up''...... all routine maintenance .... you did a minor tune up every 10,000 miles,, and a major tune up every 25,000 miles..... a major tune up consisted of examining and replacing the complete ign. system if it needed it and setting the timing,,,, plus rebuilding the carb... and if it had adjustable valves , adjusting them... and changing the fuel filter/ air filter .... the minor tune up was just points/ condenser/spark plugs/ ign wires/ and adjusting the timing... What you need is a '' Major tune up''.... install new points/condenser/spark plugs/any ign. wires that are bad, dist cap and rotor.... set the basic timing at anything between 2 deg. and 8 deg... for todays gas... and tear down the carb and soak it in lacquer thinner or carb cleaner and put a kit in it.... ALL OF WHICH YOU CAN DO IF YOU CAN READ AND TURN A DOORKNOB...:laugh::laugh: all you have to do is get a shop manual and follow it.... you can rent /beg/ borrow/buy a timing light and we will walk you thru the point /timing setting.... when you got friends like us you cant lose....:Brow:p The main hump to get over is that you think you cant do it.....once you do some things and gain confidence then you will be surprised at what all you can do.... you just need a spark plug wrench... a phillips screw driver, a straight screwdriver, a timing light , a feeler gage,,, and some carb cleaner , which ever you choose.... be encouraged.....and when you get thru with it ,,, you will be able to stand on the outside of the car , hit the starter and it will fire up and keep running....
I'm sure I can do it. The PROBLEM is, is that I live in NYC. I have no time to let the car sit. Especially if I goof something up. I would love to keep the nailhead but I'm seriously SERIOUSLY considering an modern engine swap. If I keep it I would plan on going EFI with a custom intake manifold (making a edelbrok work) and eventually turbo. I would LOVE to do this. But the annoyingness of all the little things with an older engine get to you. ESPECIALLY living in a city. On the subject of keeping the nailhead, from what I've read it seems that EFI and msd ignition will make things easier? Also IIRC EFI is no less than $1200? I really really want to keep it but without EFI and it's ability to make some decent power, relative to other engines, I'm just finding it hard....
I have worked on cars without a garage for 40 years. The simplest EFI is EZ EFI and it costs $2000+ when you're done.
