Hey guys,
My buddy and I are working on his 1978 Midget and we're having some trouble diagnosing the problem. It's been sitting for years and up until this point was only started up maybe twice a year. It was originally having problems starting, but eventually would. The idle was rough and it would often die at low RPM. After shutting the car down, it wouldn't restart until it sat for a while.
We finally got around to digging into it, and trying to get things sorted. The first thing we did was pull the carb (as it was leaking) and rebuilt it. We took the cap off the distributor, to check it out, and put that back on. After reinstalling the carb, the engine wouldn't start at all.
It seems to be having trouble cranking where it'll crank for a few seconds, the cut out on its own. I'm not sure if this is a separate issue as to why it won't run, or one in the same.
That aside, after cranking on it several times, we started checking the basics... Fuel is not the issue. We're getting fuel to the carb, and through the carb. At the same time, we're getting spark to all the plugs. For some reason it's not even giving the weakest attempt to run.
We also checked to make sure none of the valves were sticking (and they weren't).
I'm lost as to where to go next... I'm planning on checking compression tomorrow, could that cause it to completely not start? If so, why would it run (well, intermittently at least) before removing the carb, but not now. It would have had to have compression before to run, but now it's not...? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Dennis
My buddy and I are working on his 1978 Midget and we're having some trouble diagnosing the problem. It's been sitting for years and up until this point was only started up maybe twice a year. It was originally having problems starting, but eventually would. The idle was rough and it would often die at low RPM. After shutting the car down, it wouldn't restart until it sat for a while.
We finally got around to digging into it, and trying to get things sorted. The first thing we did was pull the carb (as it was leaking) and rebuilt it. We took the cap off the distributor, to check it out, and put that back on. After reinstalling the carb, the engine wouldn't start at all.
It seems to be having trouble cranking where it'll crank for a few seconds, the cut out on its own. I'm not sure if this is a separate issue as to why it won't run, or one in the same.
That aside, after cranking on it several times, we started checking the basics... Fuel is not the issue. We're getting fuel to the carb, and through the carb. At the same time, we're getting spark to all the plugs. For some reason it's not even giving the weakest attempt to run.
We also checked to make sure none of the valves were sticking (and they weren't).
I'm lost as to where to go next... I'm planning on checking compression tomorrow, could that cause it to completely not start? If so, why would it run (well, intermittently at least) before removing the carb, but not now. It would have had to have compression before to run, but now it's not...? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Dennis