international loadstar 1600 carb problems

[overdrivesteve]

You can charge them up and see if they hold a charge. Otherwise there are capacitor testers that can be bought for $20. Any reason you don't want to run pertronix ignitors instead? Been using one for well over 20 years with no problems.

I haven't looked into capacitor testers, thanks.

And my reasons for not using pertronix or any other electronic ignition, well that's a long story.

I know others like yourself have had good luck with electronic ignitions, but my luck with them has been bad.
Twice my Honda car has died without warning while driving it. Had to have it towed each time.

Had another car that would not start when warm. It would start ok when cold and start ok when hot, such as when getting gas. But when warm, such as after going into a store for half an hour, it would not start at all. I would have to let it get stone cold again before I could start it again. Never did figure it out, had to get rid of the car.

And I had a nice Buick with less than 50k miles on it and it ran beautifully. Except every so often it would suddenly die with no warning. Starter would crank but the engine would be stone dead. But after 20 minutes it would start like nothing was ever wrong and run great again. There was no pattern when it would die - could be once a day or could be once every couple days or could be several times a day. I could be sitting in an intersection turning left, or could be on the freeway, and it could be morning or afternoon or night - just no pattern to when it would die. But after almost exactly 20 minutes it would start and run perfectly again regardless if it was hot or cold outside.

I replaced every sensor and computer and coil in that car. Spent over $2k then gave up and got rid of the car - practically had to give it away. Although it would test drive like a dream for someone, morally I had to disclose its very unsafe habit of going dead unexpectedly. Several times I was almost hit as the car would suddenly quit anywhere.

My IH truck is not a city daily driver. If it was I would consider putting electronic ignition in it. But it will be an occasional work truck and a wilderness 4x4 off-road camper. And if I'm in the middle of no-where, especially if solo, I don't want to be stranded and have something happen to the truck so it won't start or run I can't fix. If I could have put a standard distributor into that Buick, I would have. It might not have passed smog, but at least I would not have been left stranded so many times.

So I intend using the less reliable but more easily fixed standard Delco distributor and Holley 2300 carb to power my truck. At least I can always fix those well enough to get me home.

 

[Scoutboy74]

That's an incredible run of bad vehicular luck! Especially with the Honda. Normally, you can't do much to keep a Honda down.
As for the GM product, I had a similar experience with a '99 Grand AM GT. The car was quick and fun to drive, but occasionally the anti-theft system would malfunction, apparently thinking the car was being stolen on random start up attempts. I could crank the starter forever, but the pooder had cut power to the fuel system. There was a reset procedure that involved cycling the key on and off multiple times along with some other hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo. Mostly, it just took waiting and eventually it would allow you to start it. This could happen several times in the same day, or it could go many weeks between episodes. Very annoying and inconvenient. I traded it in on something better.

I'm a fan of the old Delco distributors. They're superior to the Holley units that IH stupidly chose to replace them with, probably for cost reasons. The metal window in the distributor cap allows dwell adjustment while the engine is running. Such a novel concept! The cap hold down arms simply require slight down force and rotation one direction or the other with a screw driver to remove or install the cap. I much prefer those over the spring steel clamps on the Holley. The Delco is more robust in just about every way.

One of the cool things about installing points eliminator modules in these older distributors is, with some forethought, you can devise a way to quickly and easily revert to the breaker points to get yourself back on the road should the module fail. As long as you have the necessary bits and pieces in your possibles box, it needn't be a huge ordeal to do a roadside retrofit. That's not an option on modern vehicles, as you know all too well. Just something for you to consider. But, for your intended usage, the old points system should treat you just fine.