'66 c-10 starting issues

[bigchad64]

I came home from driving my truck last week and was working on some instrument lights, and when I tried to start my truck again, didn't start. It will turn over and act like its catching (meaning if I continued to keep the key in the start position would cause starter to grind). I thought maybe I had let it get too low on fuel, so I put in some gas I had in the garage. No luck. Fearing I had put in some bad gas I drained the gas out, put in 4 gallons of fresh gas and took the carb off to clean. Put carb back on, put in some new plugs and same problem. If I pour gas into the carb it will allow me to crank until gas is gone, but then same thing...acts like its catching but nothing.

I'm afraid now that maybe when I was fidgeting with the control lights maybe I screwed something up electrically. The carb bowl is filling up with gas, so I don't think its a fuel problem at this point.

With this amazingly vague description, any ideas how I should chase this down?

Thanks Chad

[bigchad64]

And by the way...I miss driving it

[hewlett2002000]

points or hei? if your running hei run a 12v line from the battery and try to start it. that will tell you if your not getting proper fire to the dizzy.
John

[bigchad64]

Originally Posted by hewlett2002000

points or hei? if your running hei run a 12v line from the battery and try to start it. that will tell you if your not getting proper fire to the dizzy.
John

Haven't looked, but I'm guessing points...

[jchav62]

Were you working under the dash fixing those instrument lights? Maybe one of the wires from the ignition switch got knocked loose or broken in the process.

[joe231]

did you have the key on for an extended period of time?
if you are running points, the key on could have fried the points.
IMO points are troublesome and require almost constant attention
check the points and see if they are burnt.....then get a HEI

[MacAttack]

Originally Posted by joe231

if you are running points, the key on could have fried the points.

What Joe said........

Mac.

[jchav62]

Originally Posted by MacAttack

What Joe said........

Mac.

Yeah, what Mac said about what Joe said... HEI

[bigchad64]

i just pulled and tested the coil. it is reading outside the specs on both the inner and outer coil. could this cause the problem?

[joe231]

how did you test it? Ohm-ed it? what is your spec and what were your actual readings?
did you check the points?

[bigchad64]

Originally Posted by joe231

how did you test it? Ohm-ed it? what is your spec and what were your actual readings?
did you check the points?

points looked ok

ohm'd it...

outer coil should have tested 1.5-1.7, checked at 2.0

Inner should have tested 5600-7100 and checked 7600

[jgarverick]

doesn't sound like its far enough out of spec to not start. getting any spark at all while cranking? i'm betting something got knocked off or broken while you were workin under the dash.

[kizer]

Yep. You could pull one of the spark plug wires and have somebody turn the key and see if you are getting a spark. If your not getting a spark I'd guess well your getting power to the starter, but not to the rest of the system.

Been there done that before. My old bug was famous for having wires fall off the terminal block.

[joe231]

yeah
it isn't too far out of spec........but if you have another lying around, give it a try

[bigchad64]

Ok...its been a few years since I restored anything, so I forgot one of the keys to chasing down a problem...start with the simple, most obvious things first.

When fiddling around with the wires under the dash, one of the wires from the ignition switch got unplugged. It fired right up once reconnected.

So...It only took about 3 hours worth of work to figure out something I should have found in 3 minutes...lesson learned.

Thanks for the input.

[joe231]

that same thing happened to me.......but it wouldn't even try to fire, just crank and crank
glad you figured it out