Puzzled on the side of the road, but alive

[Mac2Night]

I have searched the Tech threads for similar issues but still need some advice on diagnosing my situation.

So, yesterday I took my all stock '74 (200, 3spd) on a 120mile road trip. She ran great (55-60mph) and never missed a beat In the last four miles of the trip, as I was exiting the interstate, it dieseled and died in the middle of the road. Raining hard and traffic was crazy.... it was like parking in the middle of the track at a NASCAR race. Traffic lightened just enough for me to push her onto a little side road and get to some form of safety.

Turned over fine, getting gas and spark but never would start (Spark from coil to distributor was STRONG but spark from distributor to plugs much weaker). The distributor, points, coil, wires etc are all either original or old (truck sat for many years before I got it but it has been a good daily driver. This is, however, the first long, hard road trip I have been on in it).

I ended up calling my Roadside Assistance through USAA and got her towed 4 freakin' miles to the house. This morning I climbed in and tried to start it up. BAM! backfire and then the rotation of the motor hesitated and then sped back up. Both, to me seem to be symptoms of a timing issue. I didn't have time or anyone to help, but my next move is to pull the dizzy cap and see if the rotor spins. Then see if there is a gap in the points (I have no idea what to look for with the points to be honest other than what I have read on here)

Thoughts? Really needing this puppy to get back on the road as it is filling in for some daily transportation while our family cars are being worked on.

 

[BRONCROB]

Sounds like you ran out of gas

 

[dave67fd]

I would check distributor as you mentioned. If it seems ok, replace cap, rotor, points and condeser and then go from there. I had a bad rotor go years ago, took forever to figure out as it's not a normal failure but can happen. Any weird noises during the die point?
May have bad timing chain/gears, could have jumped a notch. Don't know if the 6 had the nylon gears or not. Chewed mine up on the 302 once as well.

 

[Mac2Night]

Any weird noises during the die point?
May have bad timing chain/gears, could have jumped a notch. Don't know if the 6 had the nylon gears or not. Chewed mine up on the 302 once as well.

Dave, it was raining so hard and I was focused on the road and drivers (we were all hitting runoff puddles and trying not to hydroplane) that I didn't hear anything other than a little dieseling noise when it died (like it wanted to keep running but didn't.

Man, I sure hope it isn't the chain or jumped timing if I can avoid it. Just don't need to have a intensive detective project right now.

 

[Toddpole]

I had a similar issue with my first car in high school. Every time it rained my car wouldn't start. Pulled the dist cap, wiped it out and sprayed WD40 inside it. Cured the problem. Moisture apparently was causing is to arc. Give that a try.

 

[dao1980]

I had my dizzy rotor spin on the shaft one time on the trail.
It caused it to run crappy in and out, backfire and just die.
We would get it to run, piddling with all sorts of stuff and thinking we had figured it out, then it would act up and crap out.
We checked everything over and over all day and couldn't figure out why the heck it was acting like that.

Heck, I was so exasperated by midnight on the trail that I pulled the carb and pretty much rebuilt it sitting on a rock next to my dead pony.

I finally got it running and hit the interstate in a hurry, held it wide open for the thirty minute ride home and sure enough the moment it hit my driveway the motor coughed, backfired and died.

It wasn't till the next day that I finally discovered that you could spin the rotor on the shaft. I pulled it off and saw that the little plastic rib that keeps it pointed in the right direction was stripped right off.

Sorry for the long story, but maybe that's a place to look on your issue if you haven't already?

 

[Master Chief]

The distributor, points, coil, wires etc are all either original or old

You said it was pouring rain, most likely moisture found it's way into the distributor cap killing the engine. Keep it simple before opening the can of worms.

I think you answered your own question here and personally would give it a full tune-up by replacing the above mentioned components including the spark plugs. You should be fine after that.

 

[jckkys]

The fact that you heard pre-ignition could mean you over heated.

 

[Rustytruck]

I once had dirt and dust on top of the coil get moisture and short out spark. Cleaned the top of the coil and sprayed with WD-40 and all was fine.

 

[Broncobowsher]

I had a problem once in an econoline. Long hard pull on the highway for 120 miles and took the exit, died at the bottom. Engine wasn't overheated but was hot enough to be boiling the fuel in the carb. Sat at the light, stalled out. Did a flooded start (full throttle while cranking) and it lit off and ran. Took about half throttle to hold a fast idle. Got moving again and after a few miles it cleared up.

 

[rockingm82]

Sounds just like the symptoms I had in a 98 Dodge Ram. It would deisel, but not die. One day I returned from a trip and the truck wouln't start. I was stuck in the airport parking lot in pouring rain. Long story short, I returned to the truck the next day to trouble shoot it. The distributor cap had a small crack. I replaced it and it ran fine.