[John in Minnesota]

I also think it is for noise and vibration. Have you tried eastwestauto yet? Kieth may have a good set and a spring.

[John in Minnesota]

Haven't heard from you in a while. It's driving season and I want to know if you got the old girl running? Did you find the parts you needed? Let us know how you are doing. I want to know what fixed it if you have fixed it. 12+ inches of snow this weekend John

[67SS&99SS]

I haven't had any time to work on the car yet. I have final exams this upcoming week and will be finished on Friday. I'll be home for the summer, so I hopefully I'll have some time to work on the car between my summer jobs.

I have never pulled a crank gear off of a pontiac engine before. Is there a special gear puller for these engines or would it be the same as I would use for a SBC? I don't want to damage anything when replacing the timing set because parts are so hard to find. I have not found the spring and other bumper yet. I guess that I will go ahead and take the timing cover off to check these components to see if they need replacing. Hopefully they won't.

[John in Minnesota]

This pasted weekend I checked my timing for the first time since I had the motor rebuilt. We just stuck the dist. in and it fried up and away I went. I could not get the motor to time in because my vaccum pot was against the valley pan like yours is in the picture of your dist. The book shows it at about 90 degree angle to the motor. I had to pull the dist. up and move it a spline. Then I could get it to time in. Do you have a shop manual? There a a couple on ebay. It is worth its weight in gold or even gasoline. John

[67SS&99SS]

I have the shop manual, and have spent most of my time in the "electrical/tune-up/wiring section". I have two different distributors. The one that that was originally in the engine is taller than the NOS GM unit. It clears the valley pan with no issues. I have tried this distributor, the NOS unit, I've pulled the NOS unit out, moved it a spline, put it back in, and still got nothing. I put the old one back in the motor and haven't touched it since. I needed a break from it because it was starting to get frustrating. When I get out of school for the summer I'll have some more time to concentrate on it for sure. Hopefully I can get it going then.

[John in Minnesota]

How about an update!! I can almost hear it running! John

[67SS&99SS]

I haven't worked on it yet. I've been working 65-70 hours a week. I hope that I can start on it this upcoming friday. I guess I will check out the valvetrain first, then if there are no problems there, I will move on to the timing set.

[67SS&99SS]

I worked on the car some today. I took my water pump pulley, fan shroud and fan to work today and media blasted them. I got them primered and painted this afternoon. Afterwards I tried playing with the distributor again today. I pulled it out, and moved it over one notch. I moved the balancer to the 6*BTDC position, and lined up the rotor button with the #1 plug wire, and then locked it down in that position. I got a little gas in a cup, poured it in the carb, and it was firing, which is a good sign. By the time I got the float level up in the carb, the battery was dead. So, I'll have to recharge it and try it again when I'm off on Friday. Its starting to look a little better.

[67SS&99SS]

Okay, after charging the battery up I decided to give it another try. First, I did a compression check. 165-170 PSI per cylinder. Next I took one plug at a time out of the block, and with it's matching plug wire, I grounded the plug on the side of the block to check for spark. Each plug and wire had spark traveling through them. Next, I got my dad to crank the engine over with the vacuum advance unplugged. I put a timing light on the balancer and the timing appeared to be retarded. I advanced the timing until the light was consistently flashing on the pointer/six *BTDC mark. I locked it down there, and pluged up the vacuum advance. The engine turns over fine, and does fire now. The car ran for several 2-4 second intervals but would never stay running. Next I tried moving the idle air screw from 1.5 turns out to 2 turns. I finally settled on 1.75 turns because this is where I was getting the most constant cranking. After several more attempts, I decided to call it quits for the night. However, I checked one more thing before I left. I removed all the plugs and had my dad turn the engine over. I was curious to see if gas was building up in any of the cylinders. As it turns out, cylinders one and two were dry. Cylinder 3 emitted just a slight amount of fuel, but cylinder 4 just kept shooting gas out as he turned the engine over, like there was no end in sight. Why would this be? The only thing I did not do was pull the valve cover back off again to verify that all of the rocker arms were moving. The only things that I can think of air, since the intake is slanted slightly towards the rear of the car, the greatest concentration of fuel is going back there, or the cam has wiped the exaust lobe on the 4th cylinder and it is only letting fuel in, but no fuel out/air out, and the excessive fuel building up in the cylinder is fouling the plug out?

[67SS&99SS]

worked on the car again today

1. I pulled off the valve cover to check and make sure that each rocker arm was in fact moving when the engine was cranked over. All of them moved with no problem.
2. I put a set of of NGK plugs in the car this time rather than the AC's.
3. I got my dad to crank the engine over and I moved the distributor in approximately a 90* sweep from the firewall to the center of the engine. The engine would fire at certain points but never would run consistently.

I guess I am going to have to replace the timing set after all. I did not want to pull that cover off if I didn't have to. Do you have to lower the front of the oil pan, like on a chevrolet engine to get the timing cover off, or can you leave that alone? How hard is it to get the crank gear off of the crank snout? How do I reinstall the gear without damaging the crank? Do I need to have the engine at TDC before I remove any of the timing components, correct?

[67SS&99SS]

Worked on the car about 10-5 today. What I did:

I pulled the timing cover and inspected the timing chain/bumpers/spring. The timing chain had some slack in it that the bumbers weren't taking up. So, since I had it torn down, I replaced the timing set, and the right side bumper. I had the engine at TDC when I removed the set and the dots on the gears were lined up. I was unable to find an NOS left bumper so I reused the old one. The spring looked to be in decent condition so I wiped it off reinstalled it. The new parts seemed to elimate all of the slack that was in the chain. Next I used my taps to clean the holes for the cover bolts, and a dye to clean up the threads on the studs that hold the cover in place. I noticed that the "eccentric bearing" as the shop manual calls it had been rubbing on the inside of the timing cover. It has put about a 1/16" groove into it. Is this normal? I went ahead and cleaned the cover up and I put everything back together, and gave it another try. As my dad cranked the engine over for about 15 seconds to get fuel back to the carb, I was hoping that it was going to fire up and run great..... After fuel got to the carb, it was doing the same thing, firing, but not consistently. After moving the distributor just slighty, it fired up and ran all of 4 seconds, and then went dead. I locked the distributor down, and got dad to try cranking it again. After it ran those 4 seconds, it wouldn't do anything but fire every now and then from then on, just like before. I pulled the plugs, and the 1st two were a light tan color, the third one was damp, and the fourth one was drenched with gas. Fuel is just soaking the #4 cylinder for some reason. After that I gave up.

[67SS&99SS]

Put a jumper wire on it today from the positive side of the battery to the positve side of the coil. Still wouldn't crank. Put the N.O.S. distributor back in it, changed the coil, and changed the plugs twice. I put fresh gas into the carb, and tried starting fluid as well. I'm completely clueless now. I had my friend come over, whom is an excellent mechanic for 50s and 60s gm vehicles, and he went over everything I done to the car as well as tried a few new things and it stumped him as well. I believe the term he used was it didn't defeat me, but I'm retreating for now.

[63HO3x2Cat421]

Andy, i have been following this thread with great interest since stumbling upon it a week or so back. The reason i'm following so intently is that i've faced a similar problem as yours including the parts replaced, with symptoms nearly identical. My problem started shortly after replacing wires, plugs. etc. Well long story short my buddy thought the 3 on the firing order was an 8 and at least two wires were installed in wrong cylinders, since corrected.

Needless to say i had much difficulty starting the car and eventually it backfired quite violently thru the carbs and even shot some flames which we quickly put out. Well since this episode i can't get the car to run properly despite setting dwell, timing etc. Yes i'm at TDC and in the right firing order but she doesn't want to start and when it does she'll protest and cough until it finally sputters out. The only thing i haven't checked would be the valvetrain...i'm worried the repeated backfiringand cranking over and over has bent some valves and maybe wiped out a few lobes.

Hopefully i can a thing or two watching this thread. I'm an old bodyman but somewhat challenged mechanically. If i want this thing fixed it'll be me that does it as i don't know anyone around here that has a clue about old cars. Good luck gettin yours right.


Paul

[67SS&99SS]

The ground strap on the back of the block that goes to the firewall looked frayed, so I replaced it saturday. I also added another ground strap. I added it to to the firewall and put the other end under the bolt that secures the distributor hold down plate. Before I tighened down the new ground straps, I took a piece of emery cloth, and made sure that only clean shiney metal was showing before I secured them in place. I also removed the battery ground cable, and cleaned up the place on the block it secures to and the cable end. After I buttoned this up, I rechecked the rotor button alignment with the #1 plug wire on the cap when the balancer was at 6* BTDC. I sprayed some starting fluid in the carb and turned the engine over. No sign of life. I moved the distributor over a 50* arc this time just trying to get some life out of it. Nothing. I wish I had one of these, pontiac guys locally to help with trouble shooting, but I don't know of any. Mopar, Chevy, and Ford guys are just around the corner. I'm ready to just I'm beginning to suspect that this "new reproduction" wiring harness is a piece of garbage.

[John in Minnesota]

If you think it is the harness, bypass it. A wire from the battery to the coil (pos. side) is an old hot wire trick For stick shifts.

[sdbob]

I Had a coil that would fire the plug like yours but wouldn't fire the engine.Also from exp. if you do remove the push rods,first thing DO NOT lift them out.rotate them first.If you lift them you can pull the lifter out of the bore,I've done this then try to replace lifter. I would try all of your parts if possible on another running engine to check quality.I also replaced a set of points on my street 455 years ago.Couldn't get it running,no fire though, for 3 days! Why? the plastic packaging remained on the bottom of the points.You could hardly even see it,I used sand paper viola it fired.haven't worked on a 4cyl in years.The hardest thing is loosening the balancer bolt and you must tighten it to spec.V8s are 160ftlbs.The crank gear should slip off without a puller.Don't quit you are learning.I sold an engine that I had gone over,and installed it.Couldn't get it running for 3 days,bouncing my head against the wall no fire nothing rechecked,rechecked again.I was firing on 1 exhaust! You learn. Bob

[67SS&99SS]

Originally Posted by John in Minnesota

If you think it is the harness, bypass it. A wire from the battery to the coil (pos. side) is an old hot wire trick For stick shifts.

I did that, no change unfortunately.

[67SS&99SS]

Originally Posted by sdbob

I Had a coil that would fire the plug like yours but wouldn't fire the engine.Also from exp. if you do remove the push rods,first thing DO NOT lift them out.rotate them first.If you lift them you can pull the lifter out of the bore,I've done this then try to replace lifter. I would try all of your parts if possible on another running engine to check quality.I also replaced a set of points on my street 455 years ago.Couldn't get it running,no fire though, for 3 days! Why? the plastic packaging remained on the bottom of the points.You could hardly even see it,I used sand paper viola it fired.haven't worked on a 4cyl in years.The hardest thing is loosening the balancer bolt and you must tighten it to spec.V8s are 160ftlbs.The crank gear should slip off without a puller.Don't quit you are learning.I sold an engine that I had gone over,and installed it.Couldn't get it running for 3 days,bouncing my head against the wall no fire nothing rechecked,rechecked again.I was firing on 1 exhaust! You learn. Bob

Thanks for the info. I replaced the timing set a few days ago as well as the coil, and I removed the old distributor and replaced it with an N.O.S. piece. I have not removed any push rods yet. I guess what I was going to try next before I put the petronix ignitor II kit in the old distributor was to pull the intake off to see if anything could have possibly gotten in it. I've heard of mice building nests in intakes but for the car to run perfect one minute, and to not run at all 30 minutes later has me thinking that it would have to be a fast mouse to make a nest that fast. I'll definately check the bottom of the points though. Thats something I haven't thought of. They came in a small cardboard box, but I guess there could possibly be something on them. However, the N.O.S. distributor was completely assembled when I got it. It still had delco-remy pieces in it.

[carbking]

Andy - have not seen it mentioned in this thread, and not sure if the 1962 has one; but my 1963 had a "ballest resistor" in the ignition system. When it went bad, there was still a weak spark at the plugs, but the engine would not start or if started ran poorly.

Possibly something to check.

Jon.

[67SS&99SS]

Jon, thanks for the tip. I have been told this is a heater resistor but I will post a pic anyway and see if it is in fact a resistor for the ignition system. If it is, where would I purchase one?