Very Hard to start.Help!

[XJames98]

71 Scout 2 810. 304 2br Holley 2300
ok so Saturday I went wheeling. Truck started off running great.
But on hill climbs it wanted to stall. No real worry. It would fire right back up.
Then I guess I have a bad motor mount. Cuz the fan cut my upper hose. We patch it up and drove it about 50yrds to the top of the hill. We where trying to fill up the radiator more we fire it up to burp the system. It ran all of 30sec and died. Then refused to restart. No fire at all. Every now and then a little hit one cylinder but that was it.
So then we clean the carb, and check the for spark all was good.
Then we pulled all the plugs and cleaned them. Then it would haft ass run off start fluid. At this point we needed to get it off the trail. So we started to tow it back. While being pulled I popped the clutch and it fired. I ended up driving it back to the trailer and loading it. I shut it down then and restarted it. It fired not right away but it did.

A few hours later I get it home try to start it to unload it. Nothing just cranks. Tried starter fluid nope. Tried popping clutch rolling of the trailer no luck.
Today I check the timing, good set to the #8. The carb was rebuild last week. The points are in adjustment. Still not a thing.
Then I go buy new plugs. Gap them to .035 fires of right away.
Let it run for a few mins. Go to give it gas it stalls then wont start again. I get it started back up with help of starter fluid and adjust the carb. Fuel weeps out the inspection hole. And adjusted the air mixer till the vacuum was the highest.
It seem to running a little better. So I drove it around. Missing a bit and hesitates when you first give it gas.
Got back shut it down turn the key fires right back up. Like it did in the beginning. I let it sit for a few hours. Tried to start it to move it nothing just cranked. Gave it some starter fluid. It struggled but it started. But now it runs like crap and you have to feed it starter fluid to start it. And then it barely starts.
Im stomped I have no clue what to do from here.
Any ideals?

Thanks guys
-james

 

[Scoutboy74]

When the fan sliced your upper hose, did coolant get sprayed back onto the engine, including the distributor? If so, you May have gotten some moisture inside the distributor, just as if you'd swamped it splashing through a deep puddle or water crossing. That might explain the hard starting immediately after the hose slice.

When you say you, "cleaned the carb", I'm wondering how thorough a cleaning you could have done out on the trail. A couple quick spritzes with carb cleaner spray? Maybe brushed a couple large mud chunks off the front of the fuel bowl? Just real curious about that.

Ether/starting fluid isn't a good potion to use around a gas engine. You can actually do internal damage with it if you aren't real careful. Better to use fresh gas poured from a clean container for manual priming.

You say the timing is good and set to #8, but that doesn't really mean much. Most often when static timing is mentioned, there's a number to go along with it, such as 0 degrees or 5 degrees advanced, just as examples. That requires the use of a timing light, plugged vacuum hose to distributor vacuum advance, and a warm engine speed of a fairly steady 700 rpms or less. With the scribe on the crank hub outlined in reflective paint or soapstone, you can then determine where your static timing is set as the strobe light flashes.

You say the carb was rebuilt recently, but this statement is open to much interpretation. Was the correct Holley brand kit used? Did the gaskets in the kit match the old gaskets when compared side by side? You did make that comparison, right? How much toil and trouble was put into cleaning all the individual carb parts during the rebuild process? Spritzes of carb cleaner spray hither and yon and a little scrubbing don't quite get it done. You've got to get more medieval on the sumbitch than that. While these carbs are generally pretty simple to service and tune, there's plenty that can go wrong along the way, even for the grizzled veteran.

Based on what you've described, it seems to me that your fuel system is in poor overall health. I'm suspicious of your carb internal condition post-rebuild. I'm suspicious of your float level setting. I'm suspicious of your fuel pump possibly having a pinhole in the diaphragm allowing the fuel in your bowl to drain back. I'm suspicious of your accelerator pump being out of adjustment preventing the carb from delivering an adequate pump shot when you increase throttle under load. I'm suspicious of your choke function when the engine is both cold and hot, since you didn't address that important point.