I tend to drive my classic cars as often as weather permits. In doing so I have encountered several times my car would not start when I have been away from home. The last time I was on a rather remove beach road with a dead battery. Thankfully a genuinely nice passerby helped me push start the car. Over the years I have found few tips to get your classic car started with limited tools on hand.
Be aware of your battery.
In past instances that I had experienced a no-start condition like this I cranked, cranked, and cranked the engine some more, just trying to will the car to start. Wrong thing to do. Once you have realized that it is not starting like it should, do not touch the key again until you change something. Seriously. Sit back and think, rather than idiotically spinning the starter until you have a dead battery.
These tips is especially important for cars equipped with big engines or small batteries. You only get a finite number of tries before your battery will not have the juice to spin the engine over or fire the ignition. Especially with the modern batteries which will tend to completely discharge when they drain to a certain point, thus jump starting becomes next to impossible. You could pivot to push-starting at that point, but diagnosis while pushing starting is exceedingly difficult.
Take a scientific approach – process of elimination.
You are stuck, so take that time to think through the process of how an engine starts. Fuel, air, compression, and spark. Lift the hood and start investigating everything you can without turning the engine over. The nice part about vintage cars, and most classic cars is that there are no computers, so engines run with 3 simple components air, fuel, and spark.
First, what happens when you turn the key. Do you hear the starter turn over slowly, or a clicking noise, no noise, and do any of the other electrics work (lights, gauges, radio)?
If there is limited power; it seems the starter does not have enough power to turn over the motor so let us check the battery terminals. If they look fine, then the battery may just be weak and all you may need is a jump start from another car to get you going. If you do, have the person who is giving you the jump start keep the engine running above an idle so that the alternator can provide your battery the extra power it needs.
If the battery terminals show corrosion, then a quick roadside solution is to pour Coca Cola over them to remove the corrosive material. The Coke will bubble and eat away at the rust and corrosion. The acid in Coke will neutralize the corrosion on the battery and cables. When the Coke has finished bubbling, take a wire brush, and brush away any corrosion that is stuck around bolts or any other hard to reach areas. Then wash off with clean water.
If the battery checks out; then the problem may be the starter. If you turn the key and the engine does not try to turn over and instead is silent, you can sometimes make it start one more time by taking a regular hammer and gently tapping on the side of the starter towards the rear, while someone else is holding the key in the “start” position. You may have heard of this little trick before. If you know the symptoms of a bad starter, you can shock your vehicle back to life long enough to get to a mechanic or home by giving your starter a tap with a hammer or solid metal object. * I have even used a lug wrench for the spare tire as a hammer. Starter motor problems usually have the same symptoms: Turn the key to start your vehicle and you hear a loud click, or sometimes you hear nothing. The headlights are bright and do not dim when you turn the key, and everything else electrical seems to work fine. This tells you it could be a bad starter neutral switch or a bad key switch but about 99% of the time it is a bad starter or starter solenoid.
If all the above checks out, then on to the next steps in trouble shooting.
Does pumping the throttle shoot raw fuel into the engine from the carburetor’s accelerator pump?
Is there a blockage of the air cleaner as I have encountered dirty air cleaners/filters that do not look as if they are blocking air flow? Hold the filter up to the sun or use a flashlight. to see if the light shines thru the filter.
If your carburetor or fuel injector is not showing signs of gas flow, then check the filter for fuel. If you are lucky you will have a see thru filter, if not then it may be more difficult to check. So, for me it has gas in it and when the electric pump was running, I could see fuel flow.
In my instance, I checked the clear fuel filter while the key was switched on to activate the electric fuel pump. If the fuel is not flowing to the carburetor you can also tap on the fuel pump with a hammer, lug wrench, or other solid object either mechanical on the engine or electric to get them to turn freely is jammed. I have even heard of people taking the gas cap off the tank and tapping on the underside of the tank to clear the lines. If fuel is flowing, but after a handful of tries to start the engine it still does not start, then you can look to maybe have flooded the engine with fuel.
The engine was not even trying to start. No random cylinders firing or catches that could have kicked the starter drive out. That left one option: ignition problem.
Look around for help, and not just from people.
If you leave the house that morning without any tools. Meaning you are going to have to get creative about the diagnostic process if you are not able to disassemble anything. To find out if the problem is with weak spark rather than no spark, start by making sure the battery cables were tight. They are….
The next thing is to create a situation within the engine where combustion would occur with pretty much any spark at all. To trouble shoot for spark lets start with the distributor. Take the cap off, hopefully you have a screw drive and if not a healthy set of keys may be useful enough to get the cap off.
Check the cap for any moisture or carbon tracing. What is happening is that the moisture that is stuck inside the distributor cap is compromising your spark. The spark is sufficient when all the other conditions are perfect, but once rain or moist air steal additional energy via the old spark plug wires, the engine starts misfiring. Best to wipe down the cap and rotor with a clean cloth and to make sure you do not leave any residue.
If you see carbon tracing residue on the cap terminals or rotor you can scrape them reasonably clean with a small screwdriver or your handy set of keys.
No signs of carbon tracking or arcing meant the cap was okay. Another sign suggesting the points. The next step is to check the points or electronics. Nothing weird there. Next item to check was the points—an area plenty of folks might have jumped to right away.
Get creative.
The faces of my ignition points were charred and gray.
If you have a nail file handy then that is the best quick means to clean the points. This is a big file, and it just barely worked for my situation. The file you can find attached to most small nail clippers is the ideal version of this hack.
If no nail file is handy then another old school method is simply folding over a dollar bill.
Then slide it back-n-forth between the points to clean off the carbon.
If you do not have points, the process is a bit more complicated. Most electronic ignition systems require a consistent 12 volt minimum to operate. If your battery or alternator is not putting out the 12 volts the system will not operate.
MSD systems provides a trouble shooting method for their systems.
White Wire Trigger:
If you are using the White wire (points or electronic amplifier) of the MSD to trigger the ignition, follow these steps.
- Make sure the ignition switch is in the Off position.
- Remove the coil wire from the distributor cap and position the terminal so it is approximately 1/2″ from a good ground.
- Disconnect the MSD White wire from the distributor points or the ignition amplifier.
- Turn the ignition to the On position. DO NOT CRANK THE ENGINE.
- Tap the White wire to ground several times. Each time the wire is pulled away from ground a spark should jump from the coil wire to ground. If spark is present, the ignition is working properly.
If there is no spark:
- Inspect all the wiring.
- Substitute another coil and test again. If there is now spark, the coil is at fault.
- If there is still no spark, check to make sure there is 12 volts on the small Red wire from the MSD when the key is in the On position. If 12 volts are not present, find another 12-volt source and repeat the test.
- After inspecting the test procedures and inspecting all the wiring, there is still no spark, the Ignition is at fault. See the Warranty and Service Page for Information.
After running thru the above and there is still no spark; the issue may be your coil or another deeper problem.
Sometime the only solution is calling for a flat bed to haul your favorite classic car home. However, driving home under my own power is at least some version of a victory.
