New distributer, big can of worms. HELP

I am finally driving my 60 CJ5, it has a F134 engine out of a 63. I was having trouble with jeep sputtering bad during acceleration. The distributer had alot of slack in shaft... slop side to side was about 1/8 of an inch. It started good and idled fine just didn't like acceleration. I ordered a new OMIX-ADA electronic distibuter P/N: 923068 (17239.01) from amazon. It showed up today in the mail so I drove it down to the shop and pulled old one out and installed the new one. I also installed a new internal resistor coil. That when the fun began... I tried to start it like I always did, without touching the gas pedal, and it wouldn't start without pushing pedal all the way to the floor like it was flooded. When it did start, the idle was not smooth and it was running very rich. When it starts you get a big cloud of black smoke out the tail pipe. I didn't have a timing light, but I did use a vacuum gauge to set timing. It had about 20 lbs of vacuum and tried to put timing where it ran smoothest with the most vacuum. I tried to adjust idle but the lower i got the worse the vacuum jumped around. I wound up with the idle set around 900. I took it out and drove it and it runs way better then it did. It was not what I think it should be so i went back and pulled the spark plugs and regapped them to .045. They had nice coating of black soot. I put them back in and that didn't really change things all that much still starts horible, cloud of black smoke and running very rich. I don't understand why it is running so rich after changing the distributer and coil. When I dropped the idle down to 600 rpms the vacuum guage would jump up and down about 8 to 9 psi witch makes me wonder if i have a compression issue. Help... do I have plugs gapped correctly... any thoughts on vacuum?:?

 

I would do it with a timing light. Oreillys has a tool loan program where you get a tool on a credit card, bring it back and they will refund your money. I don't know if they'll do it with a timing light, but its worth checking.

 

And if you've got a Harbor Freight nearby, they sell the timing lights for $25; I just picked one up myself. Sorry I can't help with the real problem though; I'm still struggling though my own problems...

-WRM

 

Have been driving jeep around and it runs great except for the running rich and poor starting. It basically won't start when it is warmed up without pushing gas pedal to the floor and then reving to clean up the idle. I have to think it is all in the setup due to the fact I have recently put a carb kit, new distributer, and new coil. I need to set the timing with a light, i think it is fairly close but as rich as the thing is running the carb has to need adjusted also. Where to start, I don't know if plugs are gapped correctly or anything. I have had guys I work with tell me maybe I need a hotter plug but I don't want to hurt anything. Do I start messing with carb, it is the origin carter that seems to be ok. Any thought would be appreciated.

 

It sounds like the float level is wrong. Take the air cleaner off and look down the carb to see if fuel may be dribbling down the throat. you can do it running and then shut it off and then check again.

 

I would put in stock plugs, new. Gap them per the FSM. The engine ran great when it left the factory, and it had factory parts.

I tend to ignore "buddies at work" because they tend to run off at the mouth, don't really have a clue. In my experience most people who don't know jeeps revolve everything around chevy and ford v8's, and start throwing aftermarket parts on things when they don't really understand engines.

I would definitely get the timing set, at the proper RPM's. or at least as close as possible before I would start blaming the carb. When you have an engine that isn't running right, its not because of the engine design specs, it is because something is out of spec. Hotter plugs are out of spec.

 

I set the carb as per the kit info. I just perchased a FSM and will review what there specs are and see if there is something wrong. I will also set plug gap to .035 they are about 40 miles old. I will set timing with timing light and set idle back to 600 if possible. Hard to believe it is 600 but ok. Will also check the compression, have a bad feeling it is not even per cylinder.