Another Flex Plate?!

[Jeff W]

Ugg, I'll just toss some idea's out there.

I would not totally trust your timing light if your timing looks like it is creeping. It's possible the outer ring in the pulley (the one with the timing notch) is slipping on the 40 year old rubber ring that holds it to the rest of the harmonic balancer.

If you don't think it's a carb/fuel problem... I would clean/replace the point and gap.

Grab a spare coil at the parts store to try or keep in the trunk.

Check the two nuts that hold the carb to the intake manifold.. .I've had these loosen up on me causing major vacuum leak... although that usually is problem at idle.

I'm sure you will get some more advice but know you are standing on the side of the road waiting for reply. Go for clean and gap of points first.

[Luva65wagon]

One thing you mentioned makes me wonder if you were just saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing. Timing is usually set at "Before Top Dead Center" and rarely, if ever After TDC. You'd be setting it at about 10 B-TDC if all things are actually good - like timing gears, harmonic balancer pulley not slipping like Jeff mentioned.

You should also check to see if your vacuum advance is working, since it'll be quite doggy if you don't have one of those working right.

Hope you figure it out. I struggled on a road trip a couple years ago -- shot-gunning all kinds of things. Ended up being a carburetor seriously needing a rebuild.

Good luck!

[Skookum61]

Using my phone so i'll make it brief. Dwell wasn't set properly when they put the 200 in. Also no vaccuum advance and the carb needed love. I'll look for the right dist. when I get back but i'm on the road and making a beeline for seattle. Thanks for the help.

[Skookum61]

Aaahhhhhh........It's good to be home.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my posts while I was on the road. It helped immensely.

I am going to try to get some of my money back from the guys that dropped the 200 in the 'Bird in Austin. Does anyone have a Mitchell Labor Guide for a '61?

I am trying to gather as much info as I can in the next few days so that I'm armed with knowledge when I call them up on Monday. It seems they charged me for about two to three times as much labor as it should have taken (30 hours), gave me a junk distributor (no charge), used a crappy bolt to mount it (that kept slipping, making my timing slip multiple times), should have mounted it about 30 degrees counter-clockwise from where it is, didn't set the dwell, didn't tighten down the transmission bolts enough (causing 3 of the 4 of them to back out on the road, ruining the flexplate I bought less than 10,000 mi. before), and - well - I think that's enough to merit getting a few dollars back.

Anyway, if anybody has any info that you think would help to know, I'd appreciate it.

I was out of town this week, but look forward to the next meeting. Thanks.

[BPVan]

My advice is have as many pictures, receipts, and documents as you can before you call them. Some shops can be worse than fighting a traffic ticket where you need 17 witnesses, Robert Shapiro, and documentation dating back to Watergate. I wonder what their Yelp rating is? Maybe there are some resources in Austin you can use for leverage in case they play hard ball.

Good luck with it all and next time you need some help on her don't hesitate to reach out.

[Skookum61]

Thanks for that. The mechanic in Albuquerque that set me up for the last leg home said he would write an email detailing what he thinks they should have done.

I do have one question, though. This kind of shows my hand, here, but if there are little metal flakes down in the distributor (definitely not from the cap/rotor but lord knows from where) could those potentially get sucked up into the vacuum advance line? In other words, what's the most logical explanation for no vacuum advance?

[Luva65wagon]

Yeah - good luck with all that. I don't think, short of small-claims court - or very honest respectable folk who will acknowledge wrong-doing and step up the plate (which I suspect if they were that, this wouldn't be a topic at the moment)... you may be exercising futility. Futility seems to be pretty strong already, as it is. So, let us all know what the outcome is.

As for the vacuum advance, it is a diaphragm in the distributor which if you hook a hose to and suck on, you should see the points plate move. Should move with very little suction.

If there was too much crud inside the distributor, I doubt seriously it would make it into the vacuum advance, but would probably act more as "grit" keeping the plate itself from rotating. Hard to say. Just "years" of grime could do the same thing.

The only way to check whether the advance circuit is working is to run it and watch a timing light as you throttle it up. You can also check the advance vacuum with a tee inserted and vacuum gauge attached to make sure the carb vacuum source is actually working too.

Sounds like a tech day in the making....