honorablejr

My son has an 86 El Camino with 305, and it won't start. It cranks over, but doesn't offer.

As long as we jumpstart or keep a charger on the battery (we've been messing with this for a couple of weekends), it turns just fine. From all appearances, we have air, we have spark, and we have fuel. The timing hasn't been messed with, so that about eliminates all the options I'm aware of...

We rebuilt the motor and quadrajet some months ago (they only have a few hours of running time on them: hardly even broken in!), and got it running, but it wouldn't idle: only fast idle, almost revved.

We found the choke (electric) mechanism was binding the passenger side of the assembly the accelerator attaches to. (That shaft leaks a little fuel, on the passenger side, by the way.) Freed that up, and the idle set down where it should be, and it purred real nice. Shut it off, and it restarted fine.

We let it set for about a month, then tried to start it. It won't start now, even with ether: it doesn't even offer.

The tester shows a spark at the plugs, and everything except the ignition module is new anyway.

We thought it may not be getting fuel, but it has a rebuilt carb, new fuel pump, and filter, and it all was working last time we started it!!! The filter seems to show some fuel flow through it, but not much. However, the ether/starter fluid doesn't even get an offer! That seems to indicate another problem?

We've done nothing to it since it ran last, so I am at a loss to figure out what changed! The temperature here is in the 70's and 80's now, and it was in the 90's when the engine ran last, but that shouldn't be enough to stop the engine from starting, even with a bad component somewhere? We thought about adjusting the choke, but it is an electric choke, with a detent that keeps the choke cover from being turned to adjust it.

Air, fuel, spark, timing: we SEEM to have the four necessary items: what's up?

How do we chase down a problem we can't identify, and figure out why it won't start? Thanks everyone! -honorablejr

honorablejr

Just testing to see if it posted okay. Thanks!

gengine

I hope you figured it out by now, but if not, there's something going on. I'm just going to throw out some ideas, so don't think I'm talking down to you. These are things that I have run into, and a few times, I overlooked but know better. Have the plug wires been messed with? My '46 chevy got new wires by my brother and were put on one position clock wise. since it won't fire, how about the cap and rotor? Have you tried to pour just a little bit of gas down the carb? I personally don't care for ether. I've worked on diesel engines that have destroyed intakes from ether. while your trying all of this, try it with the air filter cover off. sometimes just the restriction from the air filter on a carb that need tuning is enough. Hope some of this helps, I know that I am forgetting and passing a lot of stuff, but it's somewhere to start.