I have hit the trifecta of car problems on 64 that all interacted with each other. I was so ready to pitch the whole thing and do the LS conversion on the 64 instead of the Elky.

1st - Alternator pulley that failed.The pulley portion separated from the part that mounts to the shaft of the alternator resulting in intermitted full voltage and then battery voltage. Engine would run great and shudder, backfire, run great then shudder, repeat until crazy with no discernable pattern.

I spent hours chasing phantom symptoms until I saw the pulley dancing around from the strobbing from the timing light. Installed new pulley – full voltage. Still did not run great and quit for the season when I burned up the starter.

2^nd was the old fuel setup and lines. Old tank and lines were bad as I saw debris in the fuel filter. Fuel filter was not the best, so maybe some got past and plugged up carb. Maybe that was messing up the engine.  Took apart the carb over winter and cleaned – some very minute debris but could have been enough to cause problems?

This spring, replaced fuel tank, plumbed new line from tank to fuel pump and fuel pump to carb and replaced starter. Put fresh premium gas yesterday and it fired up. Engine ran poorly and missed and backfired alot but I figured I messed up the timing from item 1 enough that I started from scratch and getting the number cylinder one the firing stroke and remount the distributor.

3^rd - Distributor. After fixing the items and 1 and 2 and redoing the basic install of HEI dist for timing, I got the engine to fire again but still did not run right at all.  No matter what I did, it just seemed to be temperamental and would not work right. I had full voltage, fresh gas, no vacuum leaks. Played with this for half an hour with timing, shocked myself twice, dang thing would not work right. Frustrated, I grabbed my old stock gm hei and pulled out the newer one. Redid the basic install timing and it fired up and ran smooth, timing steady as rock.$@$##!!!

Now to reshim the starter as it is hanging up on the flexplate - which explained why I could not find the source of the whirling sound in the front of the engine.

So close now.

-- Edited by Enganeer on Friday 25th of June 2010 09:19:01 AM

Keep at it John.  You'll get there!

That's the thing with these 'old' cars and the more you modify them... the more potential for issues.

Tell me about it. Beat the storm to the garage and started back at it. I played with the stuck starter and the gear did not want to retract even when I loosened the starter bolts. It finally retracted as I pulled it. Had a backup starter and reinstalled with two shims. Too loose. Tried no shims and worked just fine and retracted fine. I must have had a questionable starter. One bright side, it fires right up and idles. Tried earning extra karma by rescuing a blown down baby bird from the storm...think it a robin. Wrapped it some paper towels and warmed it up with a halogen light while I worked on the car until it was acting peppy. Momma bird was around, so placed a tote next to the garage on it's side and tucked it in box with towels and left for the night. Nature will decide the rest.