engine and drivetrain All I did was...remove/replace dizzy cap...and no start now.

[gebbiepress@pipeline.com]

Folks, a thousand thanks in advance. My 76 CA stock everything car was running just fine until I removed my dizzy cap to see what the two vacuum lines did. Both seemed to pull in the same direction, so I assume it was working to specs, ie, no advance with a warm engine. Testing the black EM relay seemed to confirm this. I did mark the dizzy with hash marks to get it back in place, but it will not start now. Not off by 180 degrees, for sure. However, I am able to twist the rotot a bit, perhaps 1/2 to 1/2", but it snaps back to a certain position. I think I cleaned contacts and rotor, but as far as I can recall, this is the only thing I did (r/r dizzy cap) before it ran fine to not startting.

Anyone know any pitfalls I should be looking for? I am about to see if I have spark at #1 cylinder, but I'm guessing I will. Stock 76 CA car with egr blocked off, aur pump removed & blocked, elec. choke in place (water alson), and black EM valve in place an working, ie, advance with cold engine, no advance with warm engine. ??? MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[bnam]

check connector at condenser an make sure you have clean connection from coil to condenser.

[OriginalOwner]

I once forgot to re-connect the points wire to it's connector inside the distributor.

Cheer,

Carl

[Pierre]

The rotor can only fit one way. There is a notch on the distributor shaft that matches a tab on the rotor. If you get some totation, it is the shaft rotating through the mechanical advance. The rotor should not spin on the shaft when in place.

Look at the contact at the center on the inside of the cap. That's the part that touches the center of the rotor when it's installed. It is spring loaded and sometimes, it can fall off.

If it does, you need a new cap.

Also check your wires, especially the one from the coil to the cap. It may come partially undone, loose or disconnected. Check the wires connecting to the primary circuit on the coil.

Let us know what happens.

[gebbiepress@pipeline.com]

Still hard to start, like it's trying to catch for 5 or 10 secs, then finally does, but runs quite rough until it warms up. Once warm (even slightly warm), purrs like a small kitten ;>) Perhaps when I sucked on the 2 vacuum lines to the dizzy (to see what they did), maybe I did "something". It is also possible the dizzy cap removal has nothing to do with what might be a new problem. I did notice that the choke butterfly used to remain wide open after the motor was running and allowed to cool (30's and 40's here) and that the small throttle press would snap it closed. Now I notice that the choke seems to be closing by itself as it cools down. Knowing less than nothing about cars is not a big help either ;>)

My fault for fiddling with a perfectly running motor in the first place, but I wanted to see what those adv and ret lines did. Well, I am methodical and patient, so eventually...

[Pierre]

If the car "purrs like a kitten" which I undestand to mean that it runs purrfectly, then you obviously have a problem with the cold starting mechanism/choke etc. Does the car run well when warm? No hesitation, hiccups, lack of power, sputters etc? If so, the issue is definitely in the warm up cycle of your carburetor.