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Classic Cars Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"
19417 messages, Last post on Dec 04, 2009 at 2:47 PM
You are in the Classic Cars Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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My '79 New Yorker has been giving me fits for awhile now, refusing to start, smelling like it's flooding out, and, ultimately, killing the battery. I guess it's been about a month and a half since I successfully started it; I do remember using the NYer to jump start the tractor the last time I cut the grass. Yesterday I put the LeMans's battery in, and it still wouldn't fire up. I don't know what made me think to do this, but I pulled the distributor cap off, pulled the rotor, blew on it, and rubbed my finger on the contact point. Put it back together, and it fired right up! So was it maybe just some moisture in there? The cap and rotor are new. Well, less-than-a-year-old, new. I've never had this problem with my other '79 though, the 5th Ave, which is identical. And if it is just moisture, what's the best way to deal with it? I don't like the idea of having to "pleasure" my car every time I want it to fire up! 
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 08, 2009 6:03 am) Barring that, you might try some silicon spray on the cap and wires (are the wires old--say more than 30,000 miles old?) and you might consider a battery tender on the car to give you that little extra battery boost. I think you have the gear reduction starter, don't you? Those can get a bit "draggy".
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 08, 2009 6:36 am) I did get new wires for it, but for some reason never got around to putting them on. Procrastination, I guess.  Another thing I wondered about...even though the distributor cap is new-ish, I guess it's possible it could've had a defect in it, like a hairline crack or something? Can't that cause all sorts of odd, intermittent problems? I'll try the silicon spray and see if that helps. And yeah, it does have a gear reduction starter. What is a battery tender? Just a little charger?
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 08, 2009 7:53 am) |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 08, 2009 6:36 am)
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 08, 2009 11:46 am) |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 08, 2009 6:03 am) My '73 Fiat 128 SL would need a new distributor cap and rotor every maybe 30,000 miles or so. I could tell when it was time to replace them because on some cold, damp morning the car would refuse to start. I would yank the cap, rotor, and plug wires and bake them in the oven for a half hour or so to dry them out. Then , the car would fire right up. My theory is that the distributor cap or rotor would develop microscopic cracks that would allow moisture to collect, which would short out the spark. Maybe it needed a distributor cap condom like those Mercedes Shifty mentioned.
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Replying to: srs_49 (Nov 08, 2009 2:44 pm) Personally, I'd be tempted to just ditch the whole Lean burn system...distributor, carb, and all, and just go for the simple aftermarket Mopar Performance distributor setup. I'm not knowledgeable enough to do it myself though, and my mechanic said that it's so rare to find a car as nice and original as my '79 NYer, that he doesn't want to butcher it up like that. Personally I don't care how original it is, I just want the danged thing to start semi-reliably! |
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 08, 2009 11:46 am)  See more Car Pictures at CarSpace.com
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Replying to: tjc78 (Nov 08, 2009 3:47 pm)
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