Many thanks to all of you who helped me fix my back-up light problem. I had the actuating rod installed improperly. I took everyone's advise and the problem is solved. Now I have encountered a new problem.
Background: After a lengthy restoration on my 1964 327/365 hp, I fired it up last weekend. I went through all of the usual pre-start up procedures which included: starting the motor a few months ago on just the frame and breaking in the cam with the correct oil/zinc etc as discussed at length in the archives. This time, the body is back on the frame, fully wired with all new 'Lectric Limited wire harness and virtually every switch, nut and bolt etc., on the car is new and pretty close to NCRS correct with a few exceptions.
Problem/Question: The car has new points, condensor, cap, spark plugs, plug wires, ignition switch, 069 distributor, 091 Delco-Remy coil and the infamous "black dot" coil ballast capacitor with the horseshoe cut out in the mounting bracket on the firewall. It is a brand new reproduction part that I bought from one of the well known Corvette parts suppliers. According to my research, this is very close to the NCRS correct coil ballast resistor for the 327/365 hp engine. I preset the initial point gap at 0.019 and the timing at 10 degrees BTDC. The engine started right away BUT I could not get it to run worth a darn no matter what I tried including checking timing, dwell, spark and removing and reistalling the distributor too many times to count to make sure it was where it needed to be etc. The engine ran VERY rough and sporadic. It also backfired through the carb a couple of times but not too often. Mainly, it was just running extremely rough. Every once in a while it would run smoothly for 3-5 seconds or so and then go right back to running extremely rough. I noticed after several hours of messing with this, that after the car would sit idle for 20-30 minutes or so while I was trouble shooting/thinking etc., it would start right up and run smoothly for a couple of seconds and then go back to the very sporadic rough run with a few short spurts of running smoothly. It appeared to be an ignition proble of some kind. The flash of the timing light was VERY sporatic. I checked each wire individually etc with the light and also made sure all spark plug wires were routed correctly and connections were tight etc. I accidentally touched the coil with my hand and it was HOT! Then I touched the coil ballast resistor and it was HOT! I figured out that after I would stop for my 'think time', the coil would cool slightly and therefore, the engine would run smoothly for a few seconds until the coil got hot again. I guessed that the culprit may be my coil ballast resistor not reducing the spark to the coil enough and therefore, the coil was getting way too hot and possibly causing the engine to run rough. I then installed a replacement coil resistor from a local parts store that was rated 1.6 ohms as compared to the black dot resistor which is marked on the side of the porcelain as being rated at 0.2 ohms (which is not within specifications listed in the 1963 shop manual) and the problem IMMEDIATELY went away! The car ran great and I was able to dial in the dwell, timing, carb etc and then adjusted my valves. It is running great!
One more piece of info that may or may not be relevant. When I assembled my 327/"365hp" engine, I decided I didn't want solid lifters and installed the 1965 type L-79 hydraulic lifter cam with hydraulic lifters as a modification. I don't know if this affects the above problem I encountered and/or if it dictates which coil ballast resistor I should use. As many of you know, the 63-64 (340-375HP) used the black dot coil resitor and the 63-64 (250-300HP) used a different resistor with no dot. The 63 shop manual specifications chart states that the iginiton ballast resistor is between 1.4-1.62 ohms but it doesn't mention the various horse power applications. What is the ohm rating for the 250-300hp resistor and what is the ohm rating for the 340-375hp resistor supposed to be? By what margin does the coil ballast resistor reduce the current to the coil after the engine gets the initial 12 volt jolt and starts?
Sooo....the question is, what is going on with the supposedly correct coil ballast resistor, what ohm rating do I need, and which resistor do I buy in order to have my car run well and still be NCRS correct? I thought when I bought the black dot resistor that I had the correct one. Is it correct and just went bad or do I need something different? When I installed the replacement 1.6 ohm resistor, I put my test light on the bottom screw and the light lit very brightly and then when I touched the test light to the top screw, it lit very dimly. Therefore, I guessed this meant the replacement resistor was in fact reducing current, as it should, to the correct level before it went back to the coil.
I will continue to read the archives on my own while I am awaiting some input from guys that may have encountered this problem.
Any and all thoughts and advise would greatly be appreciated!
Thanks,
Tim
Background: After a lengthy restoration on my 1964 327/365 hp, I fired it up last weekend. I went through all of the usual pre-start up procedures which included: starting the motor a few months ago on just the frame and breaking in the cam with the correct oil/zinc etc as discussed at length in the archives. This time, the body is back on the frame, fully wired with all new 'Lectric Limited wire harness and virtually every switch, nut and bolt etc., on the car is new and pretty close to NCRS correct with a few exceptions.
Problem/Question: The car has new points, condensor, cap, spark plugs, plug wires, ignition switch, 069 distributor, 091 Delco-Remy coil and the infamous "black dot" coil ballast capacitor with the horseshoe cut out in the mounting bracket on the firewall. It is a brand new reproduction part that I bought from one of the well known Corvette parts suppliers. According to my research, this is very close to the NCRS correct coil ballast resistor for the 327/365 hp engine. I preset the initial point gap at 0.019 and the timing at 10 degrees BTDC. The engine started right away BUT I could not get it to run worth a darn no matter what I tried including checking timing, dwell, spark and removing and reistalling the distributor too many times to count to make sure it was where it needed to be etc. The engine ran VERY rough and sporadic. It also backfired through the carb a couple of times but not too often. Mainly, it was just running extremely rough. Every once in a while it would run smoothly for 3-5 seconds or so and then go right back to running extremely rough. I noticed after several hours of messing with this, that after the car would sit idle for 20-30 minutes or so while I was trouble shooting/thinking etc., it would start right up and run smoothly for a couple of seconds and then go back to the very sporadic rough run with a few short spurts of running smoothly. It appeared to be an ignition proble of some kind. The flash of the timing light was VERY sporatic. I checked each wire individually etc with the light and also made sure all spark plug wires were routed correctly and connections were tight etc. I accidentally touched the coil with my hand and it was HOT! Then I touched the coil ballast resistor and it was HOT! I figured out that after I would stop for my 'think time', the coil would cool slightly and therefore, the engine would run smoothly for a few seconds until the coil got hot again. I guessed that the culprit may be my coil ballast resistor not reducing the spark to the coil enough and therefore, the coil was getting way too hot and possibly causing the engine to run rough. I then installed a replacement coil resistor from a local parts store that was rated 1.6 ohms as compared to the black dot resistor which is marked on the side of the porcelain as being rated at 0.2 ohms (which is not within specifications listed in the 1963 shop manual) and the problem IMMEDIATELY went away! The car ran great and I was able to dial in the dwell, timing, carb etc and then adjusted my valves. It is running great!
One more piece of info that may or may not be relevant. When I assembled my 327/"365hp" engine, I decided I didn't want solid lifters and installed the 1965 type L-79 hydraulic lifter cam with hydraulic lifters as a modification. I don't know if this affects the above problem I encountered and/or if it dictates which coil ballast resistor I should use. As many of you know, the 63-64 (340-375HP) used the black dot coil resitor and the 63-64 (250-300HP) used a different resistor with no dot. The 63 shop manual specifications chart states that the iginiton ballast resistor is between 1.4-1.62 ohms but it doesn't mention the various horse power applications. What is the ohm rating for the 250-300hp resistor and what is the ohm rating for the 340-375hp resistor supposed to be? By what margin does the coil ballast resistor reduce the current to the coil after the engine gets the initial 12 volt jolt and starts?
Sooo....the question is, what is going on with the supposedly correct coil ballast resistor, what ohm rating do I need, and which resistor do I buy in order to have my car run well and still be NCRS correct? I thought when I bought the black dot resistor that I had the correct one. Is it correct and just went bad or do I need something different? When I installed the replacement 1.6 ohm resistor, I put my test light on the bottom screw and the light lit very brightly and then when I touched the test light to the top screw, it lit very dimly. Therefore, I guessed this meant the replacement resistor was in fact reducing current, as it should, to the correct level before it went back to the coil.
I will continue to read the archives on my own while I am awaiting some input from guys that may have encountered this problem.
Any and all thoughts and advise would greatly be appreciated!
Thanks,
Tim
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