My New '68 Camaro Z/28 Butternut Yellow

[firstgenaddict]

with all the timing chain slack maybe you have a bent pushrod... an exhaust on a cyl wouldn't change your compression test but would make it pop through the carb.

[dannystarr]

I checked all the pushrods. I rolled all of them on a piece of glass, and they seemed ok. I assume when you say an exhaust... You mean an exhaust valve. And Charlie was saying the same thing. That there could be a bent valve, or a cam lobe partially flat compared to others. Next Wed. we will install his carb, then his distributor with electronic ignition, then dial indicator on each rocker to see if one is not rising as high as the others....After all that I am lost. WAIT, what am I talking about, I AM LOST RIGHT NOW!  .... Danny 

[joesauer]

Since you live near Marin......there's a mechanic (Steve) who runs Northgate Automotive in San Rafael.  He works on many classics, including lots of Camaros.  May be worth it to talk to him.

[dannystarr]

Thanx for the info... Always good to have another source of knowledge. I will see what happens after Charlie and I do our thing. He is super sharp, and I am confident he will solve my issue. Don't wanna bother anybody until I have to... D

[Kelley W King]

Do things one at the time. I think Charlies carb is going to be your trick.

[dannystarr]

His carb works superb, so we will see. I for some reason think it's the distributor or an intermittent coil. But again, what do I know... D

[hubleyman]

I'm hoping the carb does the trick, but if it doesn't than we move on to the next item until we find the issue.  Like you all say, one thing at a time. 

Danny - went through about 50 of my Camaro harnesses and didn't find an ignition harness that would be worth using on your car as it is.  We can still find your problem regardless of the condition of your harness.  That can be resolved later.

And Steve from Northgate Automotive is a great guy who is extremely knowledgeable!  I've known him for decades (I'm actually from Marin) and he calls me now and then whenever he needs some help on Corvettes and muscle cars (or some correct OEM parts).

FYI - the practice sessions at Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point for us old locals) were a blast today!  Didn't break the Corvette, which is always good.....

Charlie

[dannystarr]

Well Charlie, glad ya had some fun out there. I would go but this is a 'On with my Dad" weekend. And I have too much personal stuff I gotta get going on. And not real thrilled about 95 to 100 degree heat. It hit 100 even today at the stroke of 1600 hours. Thanx for looking, and I appreciate the effort on the harness. Talk to ya Wed. mid afternoon for the big swapping's.... Danny

[dannystarr]

Charlie made it by. We checked many things. It turned out to be the distributor. He dropped in an untouched unit out of one of his Z/28's and it fired right up and ran good.  With his carb on it never ran this good. We also left one of his coils installed for now. However my carb is still screwed. It ran real good an no more backfiring with the new dist. installed. But when we put my carb back on it still runs real rich. He took his carb back, but left the dist. and coil in for me. I am kinda right back where I started. ALL that time and money spent searching and it turns out it was the newly rebuilt dist. AND the carb of course. One of the ONLY good things is I got to meet Charlie, AND find that timing gear plastic tooth missing mess. So that bad dist. made me look around a bit. But I sure wasted a lot of time and money. I learned some things for sure. Now I gotta decide what to do. And where to send things, or hand deliver them.

 Can anyone tell me if the dist. drive gear has to be installed a certain way? Can you just put it back any ole' way and press in the roller pin and run it?
 
 

[NoYenko]

Danny glad you got some things figured out, and know how to proceed. The distributor drive gear has a small drill mark on it that points in the same direction as the rotor tip. If that is not in-line it will throw off your timing. Good luck.  George

[dannystarr]

George, you got time to post some pictures of that? D

[NoYenko]

Not a great picture but I think it will show you. George

[dannystarr]

Well I just looked at it and it looks like it lines right up. Was hoping that was the problem.     I wonder what else it could be. Danny

[Kelley W King]

Danny,
If I remember right you are using a replacement carb you bought. Think they will take it back? Also to get you running until your original parts are done right you could go by O,Reilys and pickup one of there 89.00 or 99.00 buck HEI,s. When you get things ironed you could get 50.00 for it at a swap meet. I think they also have rebuilt point distributers ( cast iron and not correct) but a friend loaned me one when I was sorting out one of my cars. It is not the correct stuff but I think you want ride for now. This might get you on the road to see what else you need to do to the car.

[dannystarr]

I talked to the guy at Specialty Parts Direct and explained the sitch. There is a company that makes these for them, apparently not Holley. He has a guy that checks them over and then he will get back to me. So I sent it out yesterday. Gonna take 5 days to get there, and probably a few more days for diagnosing and resolution. In the mean time, I will decide where to send my original carb for total internal rebuild.
 Charlie is going to let me keep his dist. in for a while, and mentioned he won't have the car on the road for 2 or 3 months. However, I don't wanna hold him up in the future. So I will get that dist. hopefully fixed by then. It's all about the carb{s} right now. AND CASH FLOW to make it all happen. Danny