Won't run after sitting in the rain :-(
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:10 am
Hey all,
So, we just got a ton of rain here in SW Michigan over the last two weeks, and unfortunately my '50 Cub sat out through a little too much of it. Push it into the garage and let it sit for a weekish, and it still wasn't running - it would seem to only fire on one cylinder once every few rotations - just enough to disengage the starter, but no more. I replaced all the gas, including draining the carb. I had a couple plugs out and I was seeing spark. I also replaced the plugs to no effect.
I got desperate so I did a bunch of reading, and then pulled the distributor off to check it. The points had a bunch of oil in them (probably a teaspoon or so), but it wasn't milky or anything. I tried to be careful not to change the point gap setting while I was in there. Long story short, I got it back together and sparking (made a couple wrong turns through this process, but the internet is a wonderful place ). I had made marks to line the distributor back up, and my timing appears to be right. I don't have a timing light, but by using the hand crank, feeling for pressure on the #1 cylinder, then watching for spark it looks like it's at least close. Between that looking close, and my marks on the distributor/frame lining up I think my timing is good.
After that, it started up, but it was surging and very low power. I could barely climb a couple of the small hills (more like mounds) I have here in 1st gear. I would have to really play with the clutch to keep it climbing. Choke didn't seem to affect it, but it was hard to tell. It was irregular enough that it was hard to really nail it down. Definitely seemed to start better on choke. We slowly rotating the distributor back and forth a tiny bit while it was running to see if that helped - but it didn't seem to make hardly any difference.
I read that could be bad fuel supply so I cleaned the main jet, which didn't appear to be fouled, and that didn't make a difference (I just blew it out good, I didn't run a wire through or anything).
I gave up for a couple days because I was out of ideas, but then decided to change the plugs back to the old ones just in case the gap on the new ones were wrong or something. The old ones definitely had a wider gap than the new ones. I should have double-checked it was still running before I swapped plugs, but I didn't - I switched to the old plugs, and I was back to the original symptoms: couldn't get it started, just would pop one one cylinder once in a while. I probably shouldn't have done this - I by hand tried to match the gap of the new plugs to the old ones (using my eyeball and a flat-head screwdriver) and no change. I have spark, but nothing but the occasional cylinder firing when I try to start it.
So I feel like I'm back where I started, and I have already exhausted 150% of my total engine knowledge haha. I'm totally learning as I go here.
Anyone got some wisdom for me? I would REALLY appreciate it. I'm out of ideas. Right before the rain it had been running beautifully.
So, we just got a ton of rain here in SW Michigan over the last two weeks, and unfortunately my '50 Cub sat out through a little too much of it. Push it into the garage and let it sit for a weekish, and it still wasn't running - it would seem to only fire on one cylinder once every few rotations - just enough to disengage the starter, but no more. I replaced all the gas, including draining the carb. I had a couple plugs out and I was seeing spark. I also replaced the plugs to no effect.
I got desperate so I did a bunch of reading, and then pulled the distributor off to check it. The points had a bunch of oil in them (probably a teaspoon or so), but it wasn't milky or anything. I tried to be careful not to change the point gap setting while I was in there. Long story short, I got it back together and sparking (made a couple wrong turns through this process, but the internet is a wonderful place ). I had made marks to line the distributor back up, and my timing appears to be right. I don't have a timing light, but by using the hand crank, feeling for pressure on the #1 cylinder, then watching for spark it looks like it's at least close. Between that looking close, and my marks on the distributor/frame lining up I think my timing is good.
After that, it started up, but it was surging and very low power. I could barely climb a couple of the small hills (more like mounds) I have here in 1st gear. I would have to really play with the clutch to keep it climbing. Choke didn't seem to affect it, but it was hard to tell. It was irregular enough that it was hard to really nail it down. Definitely seemed to start better on choke. We slowly rotating the distributor back and forth a tiny bit while it was running to see if that helped - but it didn't seem to make hardly any difference.
I read that could be bad fuel supply so I cleaned the main jet, which didn't appear to be fouled, and that didn't make a difference (I just blew it out good, I didn't run a wire through or anything).
I gave up for a couple days because I was out of ideas, but then decided to change the plugs back to the old ones just in case the gap on the new ones were wrong or something. The old ones definitely had a wider gap than the new ones. I should have double-checked it was still running before I swapped plugs, but I didn't - I switched to the old plugs, and I was back to the original symptoms: couldn't get it started, just would pop one one cylinder once in a while. I probably shouldn't have done this - I by hand tried to match the gap of the new plugs to the old ones (using my eyeball and a flat-head screwdriver) and no change. I have spark, but nothing but the occasional cylinder firing when I try to start it.
So I feel like I'm back where I started, and I have already exhausted 150% of my total engine knowledge haha. I'm totally learning as I go here.
Anyone got some wisdom for me? I would REALLY appreciate it. I'm out of ideas. Right before the rain it had been running beautifully.