Car stalled, now won't start

Hello everyone,
I'm not sure I'm posting in the right spot, or if this is even an allowed topic, but I could use any guidance as I definitely dont have the skills to diagnose/fix myself.

My son is about 3 months into owning a 1969 1/2 manual trans (3 on the steering column) Ford Maverick. Had some work done on it early on to get it running - mostly dealing with the carburator and a few other misc things. Anyway, the car ran well to this point, but just lately it has been running a bit funny - stalling out at low speeds. Last night, as he pulled onto our street, it stalled and would not re-start.

This morning we went down and got some gas to put in it (just in case), but that didn't help, and to this point, it still won't start. It sounds like it's going to, but it just never catches or turns over or whatever you call it when the car starts. I put a splash of gas in the carb on a friends advice, just to see if it was an issue with the fuel getting in, but that didn't help.

Any thoughts on a possible starting point for figuring out what's wrong would be truly appreciated.

Cheers...
Jeb

 

6 cyl? check a plug to see if it's getting fire...could be the coil/points.

 

Agreed, points could have closed up due to worn rubbing block.. If points doesn't open there will be no spark...

Back in the day was a common problem with the cheap points with plastic rubbing block... The good ones used a phenolic type block(material similar to composition of PC boards)...

 

If it turns out to be the points you might want to look at a Pertonix electronic ignition conversion. If you have a friend who is handy with a timing light you can say goodbye to points for less than $100.

MD

 

Might be so flooded out now that all of the plugs are soaked

 

as said above, points are most suspect. its coil could have gone bad also.

 

bad coil, bad points, if you dumped gas in the car and nothing happened you probably are not getting spark

 

Thank you all so much for the feedback. I'll dig in and see what I can find. Cheers...

 

Hi again...
So, I'm not totally clear on what you mean when you say "points", so I'm thinking I'll start with the coil. Can you just confirm, based on the included picture, that I have properly identified the coil?

Thanks again...
Jeb

 

Yep that's the coil...

Pull the center wire out of distributor from coil and position the metal terminal approx 3/8" from a metal part on engine... The bare valve cover bolt between first two spark plug wires would be fine... Have someone crank engine and watch for spark... (be sure it's out of gear & parking brake set)...

If it doesn't spark, problem is likely inside distributor, that's where points and condenser are located(unit with the spark plug wires attached)...

 

okay, done, no spark. FYI i pulled the distributor cap off and the rotor does rotate *a little* when i turn the key. so, still a distributor issue you think?

if so, is there a full distributor that i can replace it with, or is it piece-meal? like, do i buy the rotor separately from the condenser, etc?

i looked into the points thing and i kind of get it. but i'm unclear on WHERE the points are. inside the distributor? or are they somewhere else?

you guys are making me smarter. well, i *feel* dumber, but i think i'm getting smarter. so thanks again.

 

Points are in the distributor.

If the rotor only rotates a bit, you have a bigger problem. Maybe teeth worn off the distributor or cam .... hope that it is the distributor. You may want to take this into an old-school mechanic if you aren't comfortable pulling the distributor.

 

Yeah if rotor doesn't rotate once for every two crankshaft rotations, you have far bigger issues than points...

 

rotor should spin 360 degrees with the motor spinning.

 

Hey Jeb, can you please clarify, if you have someone crank it for a few seconds (with the rotor in full view by you) is the rotor rotating while the engine is cranking?

MD