:
: ok. I spotted out of the corner of my eye, a
: 1963 Plymouth Valiant, 2 door post. push
: button automatic,not in that bad of shape,
: no rust except for some surface rust in the
: trunk, No dents whatsoever. I asked the old
: man if it was for sale, and he said if i
: could get it running i could have it!!!!
: well, i have spent 2 days so far trying to
: get this thing running and i am stumped. The
: problem is, i can't get it to run right. He
: had to the head rebuilt not too long before
: it got parked. Anwyay, the carb was trashed
: so i took the one that i know that works
: good off of my 65 Dart wagon, it fired up
: for a second, but then when i put it to
: idle, it died. it doesn't shake or anything
: it just dies if you aren't revving it. Then,
: you have to let it sit for about 5 minutes
: or else it won't start like it's flooded or
: something. The old man has no idea what's
: wrong, and says everything worked fine
: before it was parked. I have tried timing,
: carb adjustment,gas isn't varnished or bad,
: getting spark and getting gas to the carb,i
: can only get it to run a couple seconds but
: those seconds i can tell it's a strong
: motor! Please help me on this one i can't
: pass up a deal like this!!! Anything i
: overlooked? i also checked the ballast
: resistor and it's fine. I am thinking the
: coil might be bad. Or the old man says that
: maybe when it goes to idle, the fuel pump
: isn't pumping enough gas to keep it going,
: but when it's off it shoots a steady stream
: of gas into the carb so i know it's not that
: but who knows. Anyone have any advice or
: input? thanks i really want this car.

: Check to see if there is a vacuum leak anywhere
: on the intake manifold (where it mounts to
: the head). If you can get it to run for a
: few seconds, quickly spray carb cleaner near
: the intake ports to see if engine speed
: picks up. Hope this helps.
: Patrick Devlin

: The vacuun leak is a good thing to check. If it
: has a leak, you can hold the choke part way
: closed to keep it running.
: The coil is another good guess, one trick is to
: run a "hot wire" directly from the
: battery to the "+" side of the
: coil, that takes the rest of the ignition
: system out of the picture for easy trouble
: shooting.
: I would pop that valve cover off and check for
: tight valves and double-check the TDC
: timing. You can tell a lot about the
: condition of a Slant with it's valve cover
: off.
: The distributor is the only other area of
: concern. Do you have a spare to swap-in?
: You will get this car! Let us know what the
: problem ends-up being.
: DD

: Yes, I am going to try the hot lead to the
: coil, and also going to re-do the valve
: lash, because the old man says that his
: friend did it and it ran great. Thanks for
: the help! I'll let you know what it was. Yes
: i have a spare distributor and i am thinking
: about swapping it out in case the gear on
: the one that's in it now is messed up.

: i had the same type of problem one time with a
: 440. the car your messing with may be to old
: to have this i'm not sure. but anyway it was
: the ballast resistor. what was happening was
: the wire thats wrapped in a tight spiral in
: the resistor was actually broke into. but
: when it was cold it was touching together so
: it would start and run a few seconds till
: the wire got hot then it would separate and
: kill the engine when it cooled back down
: then you could start it again for a few
: seconds till it got hot again.