68 Coupe

I have a 1968 Coupe that I have had running for about a month now. Edelbrock 750 performer (jetted way down) with an Edelbrock manifold. It ran fine untol 2 days ago. I pulled it out of the garage and let it idle about 2 minutes, then shut it off to work on the interior. about 1/2 hour later I try to fire it up and it won't run. When I first crank on it, it fires for about a second then dies. Each time I turn it over, it fires for about a second then dies. If I pump the gas before starting it will rev slightly before dying. I checked the fuel filter = good. I checked the line all the way to the carb and I am getting fuel. I pumped the throttle and saw fuel coming from the primaries. Is it a spark issue? What do you think?
I am stumped
Thanks!
Gordon

CyprusMustang

Pour some gas into the carb, about one shot glass divided into each chamber. Then start and as soon as it starts floor the pedal.

Make sure your distributor is right and cap is on and all the leads are tight.

If nothing, press gas pedal 10 times and then pull each plug one at a time and check if wet/dry and smell for gas.

If I had to guess i would say your not getting gas or your timing is off

bop11

Sounds like the choke is not closed for cold start. If you pump the gas while starting and continue pumping, does it run? If the choke is not closed, it will die as soon as it uses up the fuel on in the intake. The fact that it fires would indicate that there is spark. You say it is getting gas so that should rule out the fuel pump. The gas may be all water if it has been siting for awhile. A bad coil would take a few minutes to heat up. But this sounds like an open choke.
One other thought is that the pink wire running from the key switch to the coil is bad. It is a resistance wire to lower the voltage to the coil so that during normal operation the coil does not overheat. During start up, it is bypassed by the extra terminal on the starter solenoid car so the starts on 12Volts. When you let go of the key the pink wire feeds the coil. So if the engine dies when you let go the start position, then you have a bad wire or connection

68 Coupe

Figured out the problem. I ran a jumper wire from the positive terminal of the battery to the coil wire. It started up and ran very well. So apparently the. "Pink" wire is the problem. Do I need to replace the wire? Could it be the variable resistor that the ignition wire connects to that is mounted to the front of the block? It is about 1/2" square by 3" long, made of ceramic, is hollow and has a coil of wire inside of it with spade terminals at either end. The ignition wire connects to one end and the coil wire to the other end.
Thoughts?
thanks!
Gordon

jwog666

thats a ballast resistor to cut the voltage down so u dont burn up your points, replace that and u will most likely have a running car again. if u still have points i would recommend replacing them with this https://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/08/ESpark/ and then u can remove the resistor and run straight battery voltage to your coil. u will also never have to adjust points or deal with them getting out of adjustment again, some even have a rev limiter built in.

bop11

The pink wire probably failed and someone replaced the resistance wire with the ballast resistor as jwog666 indicated. If you run without the ballast, you will boil the tar in the coil and eventually get stuck with a car that does not run after a hour or so. Coils are designed to run with a specific ballast (the ballast is rated in ohms). Chrysler ballasts are different than GM ballast and different than Ford ballast. You should probably replace your coil with an aftermarket coil which will come with a ballast or the instructions will specify a ballast.
The Accel Super Coil 140001 comes with a resistor that is to be used with the pink wire. They also give instructions to use a 1.35 ohm resistor (Accel part #150250) in series with the one supplied with the coil if the pink wire is not used. These resistors are high wattage units and get hot. That is why they are in ceramic housings. Mount them to metal and don't put tape on them as they need air flow for cooling and will melt the tape. Don't mount near a fuel line.