Advice

Lou1119 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-04-2014, 05:03 PM

I was about to take my car out for a ride on a beautiful Northern California day. The car fired right up and I let the water temp and oil temp to get warm as I usually do and the backed it out into the driveway that is tight. Using the "Armstrong Power steering" I was set to go up the drive and be off for my drive. Unfortunately the car stalled on me. I started to get it going again without any luck. At one point I saw flames coming out of the side pipes and I immediately
Turned the ignition off. I then proceeded to run my 5 week old battery down to nothing. The car now sits in my driveway under the car cover connected to a Battery Tender.

My real concern is the flaming side pipes. What could have caused that?

Thanks ,

Lou

PeteF · #2 (**permalink**) 05-04-2014, 06:04 PM

Make sure distributor bolt is tight, and that it hasn't shifted and thrown your timing off.

Bill Bess · #3 (**permalink**) 05-05-2014, 06:32 AM

just take a look down the carb throat and see if raw gas is running (flowing) while the motors off. Raw gas could cause the fire in your exhaust.
The needle & seat could have stuck causing the thing to over flow....most likely the carb if that's what your running.
Good Luck. Bill

RallySnake · #4 (**permalink**) 05-07-2014, 01:22 AM

The Battery Tender will not do a good job of charging your battery from dead. You need a more powerful charger for that.

I have had similar things happen to me. Once it was the choke that was stuck closed. On four occasions, the electric fuel pump failed. (Now I run two.) Another time, it was the relay in the engine compartment that provided power to the ignition. The contacts had corroded in the relay socket. Another time it was the MSD 6A ignition box. (I ran two of those for years before switching to the Ford EDIS system with a Megajolt). Another time the bearings failed in the camshaft's gear drive. (I switched back to a chain drive.)

The worst time took more work. When I took the air filter off the carburetor and turned on the electric fuel pump (without starting the engine), gas flowed out the Holley's rear vent tube. After doing lots of work on the carb, I found out the the pressure regulator in the Carter fuel pump had failed and was putting out 12 pounds of pressure instead of 5. The carb's needle and seat cannot handle pressure that high. Now, I have a Holley pressure regulator and a fuel pressure gauge in the fuel line before the carb.

Good luck,
RS