56 Buick

Thanks Bloo. No not burned through. The rotor and cap all look good. No cracks or burning. The rotor does have that carbon rod or similar in it and to see what happened I pulled that and wrapped it in aluminium foil. That changed the resistance to around 0.2 ohms. That change also started the engine. If that is a carbon rod? then that should have little or no resistance. Anyway, seems a new rotor is needed.

I am having trouble with engine starting. I have no spark at the spark plugs. Disconecting the coil lead at the distributor cap I do get spark. So to me that means the issue lies with the distributor rotor, cap, or spark plug leads. Using a multimeter to check resistance, I have around 0.2 ohms for each of the 8 plug terminals and 1.0 ohm on the centre terminal. That seems okay to me. But putting the multimeter across the rotor gives around 11000 ohms and that may be the issue? Any thoughts appreciated, thanks. Drew

I don't want to start any arguments over whether a Pertronix ignition system is any good or should or shouldn't be used but I am curious about any views by those who have run the LS lobe sensing models compared to the magnet trigger models in their 50s Buicks? Interested to hear any views. Thanks

Don't see a lot of 2 door Century model cars though, there seem to more 4 door configurations.

The dash, and door cards and rear quarter badging (looks like 4 barrell carb also) certainly denote a Century model but the front fenders appear to have been replaced with Special fenders (3 ports rather than 4). Perhaps given the rocker and door area, I presume the fenders were replaced due to rust.

Best to keep a sock then but bear in mind it can be a source of unseen fuel supply restriction and may need to be replaced, especially when the filter may look clean from the outside but hold such debris inside. Thanks

Agreed you would definitely need another filter further up the line prior to the fuel pump if the sock was removed. I guess the sock may avoid a blockage of the pick-up tube that may occur - for example, if say a 3/8" piece of debris covered the pick-up tube entry or partially wedged into the opening.

Asking because I don't know the answer, is a sock required on a fuel pick-up? In other words, could you remove the sock and still run the pick-up without issue? I can understand it will act as a broad area filter (less likely to block) but if it becomes blocked then it is just a constriction to the flow of fuel. Thanks Drew

Well priced to me unless there is some unseen issue.

Perhaps just me but I'll never understand why a person would not at least attempt to present the car in it's best light, with at least a wash...maybe going for the 'barn find' look?

I have seen units where that can occur, usually aftermarket. It was just a thought.

I believe, and I could be wrong, that if your sender unit has the float on the wrong side then this will cause the guage to read backwards.

The rust in the inlet tube certainly has very fine particles which is what has been causing the problem, so I hope that is the extent of it. And John, I too wondered about the after effects of the rust eater and whether that may cause something to dissolve in the fuel. There is often some kind of powdery coating left after the rust eater dries so I think all I can do is remove that powdery coating as much as possible. Thanks all. Drew

Using the borescope camera I actually cannot see any real rust inside the tank. I can see rust on the inside of the inlet tube but only on the bottom half i.e. where the fuel sits. Almost as if the fuel has eaten away the galv rust primer (paint) that Tanks Inc appear to use there. I am going to coat that area with some rust eater, wash out the tank and put it back. Then see what happens.

That may explain why the fine debris is passing through it! Now the tank is empty it appears the rust is at the bottom of the tank where the fuel sits. I expected the rust to be at the top where the fuel doesn't get to regularly enough. I will get my mirror to further explore inside.

I have dropped the tank and there is a lot of rust and debris in the tank. Should the fine debris be getting through the sending unit sock though? Because that looks like quite a thick sock that would catch a substantial amount of debris?

Thanks all. I will report back with what I find after dropping the tank.

Thanks for all the replies. I used a gas can as suggested by Ben to bypass the tank and fuel line and she runs fine. I took a look at one of the fuel line filters and there is a lot of fine gunk and I only cleaned it the other day. It appears the issue was fuel starvation by clogged fuel filter. I can blow out the line and drop the tank to try to clean everything but I am curious whether these fine particles are possibly coming from the lining or inside of the fuel line disintegrating, is that a possibility? Looking at the fuel line I would say it is original to the car. I assume it is a steel line? It just seems odd the tank would be holding that much shit because the previous owner replaced the tank around 5 years ago with one of the Tank Inc units.

Emtee, tank is only a few years old and I had the sending unit out a couple of years ago as the sending unit gasket was leaking. But there certainly could be material in the tank that could cause a blockage. Ben, I will try also try the gas can and see if that resolves the issue. Thanks guys.

It is a Rochester 4GC. Just removed the 4 float level screws and I can see the floats are dry. So fuel getting to the accelerator pump but there is some issue with the floats. I will check the flow exiting from the fuel pump first and then I guess I will need to disassemble the carb.

Hoping someone may be able to assist. Engine was running fine and then started stumbling as if running out of fuel. This became worse until the engine stalled altogether and not run. Thinking it was the fuel pump, I have now rebuilt that. Carb was only rebuilt 6 months ago or so. Put the rebuilt fuel pump on the car and have tried to get it running. On initial start I squirted fuel down the throat of the car. Engine runs then dies when fuel runs out. Did this 10 or so times but no change. It appears there is at least some fuel at least in the accelerator pump because if I pump the accelerator I can see fuel stream out the 2 discharge nozzles at the top of the throat. Still the engine does the same run for a short time using the fuel in the throat/manifold and then stall. Any ideas? Is it possible a float(s) are getting hung up somehow so the float level is low? But would this cause it to stop running as opposed to just stumbling? Thanks, Drew

Actually these are all interesting ideas. I expect they or a combination of them would work. However I do suspect, as KAD36 indicated, I will spend a good 'afternoon' getting it right. Thanks everyone.

I think you are right on the prayer!

Any way to accurately correct the bend?

The pulley is clean but the tape I used was placed between the flat boss of the pulley and the boss at the end of the water pump shaft. In other words, the tape is between the 2 faces that bolt together. There is negligible weight as it is just 2 pieces of electrical tape about 1/2" square (one on top of the other) and the tape is at the centre of the spinning pulley. Sorry, re-reading my earlier text I did not make that clear. The tape is giving very slight height at a certain spot between the 2 mating surfaces. Seems this compensates for what I can only presume is a slight misalignment (at a certain area only) between the boss of the pulley and the line of the pulley v belt groove. Unless the line of the v belt groove is constantly parallel with the face of the boss of the pulley then there is potential for wobble. Maybe it was knocked at some stage causing the misalignment. I am just not sure how I could ever properly realign what is out alignment. I placed the tape where I did only after hand spinning the pulley by hand to see where the line of the v belt diverged but I cannot see any actual damage on the pulley. Anyway it seems to have worked for now.