Thanks, Dave, for that robust paragraph of useful info! I will
digest it bit by bit! I have already set the timing with a timing
light, which was tricky until I painted a red line on the flywheel
where that ball is. But I am certainly going to check it again in
light of the clear info you have provided. I suspected that the
timing was off enough to affect starting. And I will check the
orientation of plug wires too. I was getting a bit mystified about
why the fuel/air mixture is so rich even when I unscrew the screw 4
turns... I had not considered that there might be blockage in the
fuel line. And you may be right that the problem is accentuated
because the fuel level is very low in the tank. Whew.. I wish I had
another weekend right about now!
Have a great week.
=-=-=jonas
On Jul 23, 2006, at 10:28 PM, Dave wrote:
> It's been close to 30 yrs since I had to work on a 235, but here
> goes...
> There's a hole in the bell housing above the starter that has a
> pointer that
> points toward a silver ball that's pressed into the flywheel. Your
> firing
> order is 1-5-3-6-2-4 with the distributor rotor turning clockwise
> inside the
> cap. When the distributor is set correctly the rotor will point to
> the #1
> plug wire when that steel ball is aligned with the pointer. If you're
> looking at it and the rotor is 180 degrees off, don't worry since the
> crankshaft in a 4 cycle engine goes around twice for every one
> revolution of
> the distributor. The best way to check the distributor is with a
> timing
> light set to trigger off the #1 plug wire. Aim the light at the
> bell housing
> hole and the ball should be frozen in motion in back of the
> indicator every
> time the light flashes. From experience I know you can get the timing
> adjusted so far advanced that the engine runs great but won't
> start. That's
> why using a timing light is best. A little advance is nice but too
> much
> isn't good. BTW advance is the direction that the vacuum mechanism
> moves the
> distributor, which is Counter Clockwise. The rotor turns clockwise
> and by
> turning the distributor body counter clockwise you are advancing or
> catching
> the spark earlier. Simple? Anyway, the soot on your plugs sounds
> like your
> carb is adjusted too rich, and it shouldn't be. Do you have it set
> that way
> to compensate for some other issue like a fuel delivery problem? I
> ran my
> dad's '57 out of gas one night and the carb got clogged with junk
> from the
> tank. A carb shop put in an inline filter right before the fuel pump.
> There's probably a screen inside the tank to catch stuff that can get
> clogged and the rubber fuel line about 6 inches long under the tank
> gets
> soft and collapses over time. Check those things and let us know
> how things
> go.
> Dave '57 3100 350/700R4/PS/PB/IFS/9"/etc.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> It is behaving the same way it did before. Right away there is new
> soot on the plugs which I have cleaned off. I guess I could take the
> carb back to the rebuilder and ask what is up, but I really think
> those guys know what they're doing. The best it has ever run is when
> my friend rough adjusted the timing with the loose distributor. It
> was actually running much better before I started improving things,
> and now it won't run at all.
>
> I don't trust the mechanic I took it to for the distributor because
> he put the same old points and condenser in and told me he could not
> figure out how to set the timing (!!)
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