72 Satellite won't start, carb floods

The Rock · 2004-01-06T07:32:00+00:00

History: I've had the car about 5 months, about 1-2 weeks ago Istarted experiencing some hard starting, finally wouldn't start atall. Checked under the hood and the carburetor was loose enough toalmost just lift off of the motor. I tightened it down, but stillhave the same problem.A friend of mine thought it might have been a timing issue and said Ishould look at the distributor. The pickup looked really rough(instead of the .008" gap, the metal piece that was supposed to beprotruding from the coil was sunken in) so I replaced that, as well asthe rotor button, which looked like it had a small indentation. Also,I noticed that the hose to the vacuum controller on the distributorwas disconnected and plugged with a screw. I reconnected that andtried to start - same problem.Same friend said from my description of the old pickup that thebushings in the distributor might have worn out causing the reluctorto wobble and hit the pickup.I'm pretty comfortable replacing parts and everything but I tend toshy away from stuff that might screw up my timing (like removing thedistributor) Is there anything else I could do to get a better ideaof what's going on before I haul this to a shop and throw myself ontheir mercy?

Jan 06, 2004 21 Replies

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Steve 22 years ago

Good check for a loose (but not yet jumped) chain. You have to have a bit of judgement, though, because a normal engine has a *little* bit of backlash- as you rotate the crank forward and backward the distributor shaft doesn't respond instantly. With a really loose chain, you can move the crank back and forth 15-20 degrees and not move the distributor.

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The Rock 22 years ago

Got my car fixed - it was the timing chain. Thanks for all the input everybody.

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