Tough to start
 

Hey all I got a question. Probably the first of many to come as I am mostly new to cars. I have a 65 Fury III with the original poly 318 in it. The motor has been rebuilt at least once, but it was years ago, long before I bought it. Anyway I haven't driven the car much as I am still waiting on state historic tags. So about once I week I fire it up and drive it around the neighborhood a bit.

When I start the car I have a good 5 minutes of having to play around with it dying, wanting to flood etc. Once it finally fires it runs great, no smoke or anything of that nature. But getting it to that point is a bit troublesome. The guy I bought it from says it had always been that way. Anyway like I said it is the poly 318 with and aftermarket holley 2bbl, manual choke. My old bike was carbed with a manual choke and it could be the same way when it was really cold, but not in this type of weather. IF it is normal than I am ok with it, just wanted to make sure I am not going to screw something up. Thanks for any help. :)

i think a few tries to get it running good would be NORMAL, but not 5 minutes of stalling out on you..

Make sure the choke is working. If it is flooding you may need to rebuild the carb...
May just need a tuneup..

I think I found the problem. The choke cable is binding a bit when I push it back in to open it up. May need to adjust it, lube it, or buy a new one. I just rebuilt the carb a few weeks ago. Guess I could have done something wrong, it WAS my first carb rebuild, lol.

I doubt you did anything wrong. The choke can be tough to get right. A new cable will probably get you where you want to be. Nice car by the way. Have fun. Happy Mopar motoring.:D

Some things about choke cables

It's harder to find good ones nowadays, but.....

Be sure to run the cable with as few corners as possible, and run in WIDE radius bends, and (if necessary use a second person) actuate the cable all hooked up and look for jacket movement which may indicate binding. When you hook up the jacket, sort of "re--lay" the cable to get it "un binded."

One trick I've been using is to take a brand new cable, and buy a length of fuel hose, 3/16, 1/4" whatever fits, and stretch it the length of the cable, leaving just enough exposed on the end for the clamp.

Pull out the inner wire before you install it and squirt a SUBSTANTIAL amount of oil down the cable. Use some discretion here. On my tractor, I don't car that it drips a little, but in your car.........

This may sound simple, but the things you need to start is.....

Compression --- meaning the cylinders have to be in minimally good shape. If a car sits for a long time, it can drop compression because of oil drain-back

Ignition-- meaning a GOOD hot spark AND AT the right time. If there is no or disfunctional resistor bypass circuit, you could have a poor spark, of course there's other causes. And, it has to be at the right TIME. If you are running igniton rather retarded, try bumping it up to 8-10* and see if that makes a difference, and CHECK the spark. I do this by removing the coil wire, and holding a grounded probe near the coil tower. You should get a hot blue spark on cranking, that will jump 3/8-1/2"

Also use a voltmeter on the coil positive term. during cranking to verify that the voltage equals the battery voltage.

I used to routinely run my cars in San Diego with no choke at all

So next time you want to start it, see---if there's any gas in the carb. do this by removing the air filter, and before you crank the engine at all or turn on the key, operate the throttle and see if the accelerator pump squirts any gas.

Maybe the carb is "draining back" or evaporating dry, and taking time to "get gas' back in the carb.

If the carb has gas, and you get a hot spark, 3-4 pumps of the pedal on a cool day should result IN AT LEAST the engine firing right up for a few seconds