Several things in your note caught my eye.
One of them was your complaint about the brakes turning to stone when the car
died. I am sure that you know that you have power brakes, so the fact that this
happened is due to the car dying, not necessarily anything wrong with the
brakes themselves. That said, if you haven't checked your brakes, you should do
that to be safe. Thoroughly inspect them and if in doubt replace everything
with new.
White smoke when the car is cold sounds strange to me. Black smoke would mean
that your choke was too rich (tight). Blue smoke would mean that oil was
seeping past the valve guides and burning off when you first start the car.
Continued blue smoke under acceleration would mean bad piston rings to me.
White smoke usually means steam. If only slight, could mean condensation
burning off in the exhaust. Continuous would mean a bad head gasket or some
other leak from the cooling system, worst case, cracked block. I would suggest
a compression test since this may reveal a bad cylinder which could prove a
gasket problem.
You ask if you need spark plugs. If the car is hard to start and the choke is
set properly, then new plugs is a good place to start. An obvious sign of bad
spark plugs is if some of them don't fire, yet you didn't say that the car
wasn't running on all 8 cylinders.
Melted wires under the dash is never a good thing, but I would think if that
was related, the car would not run ever. The coincidence with the radio knob is
mystifying, although it could be related to the melted wires.
Hearing lifters in a cold engine is not uncommon since they sometimes take a
while to pump up. Whether this happens or not could depend on where the engine
stops when it is shut off. Some of your lifters may pump up with oil easier
than others. This could also be an indication of having dirty oil in your
engine, having too low of oil pressure (from worn bearings) or using too thick
of oil so it doesn't pump well when cold. This should not be related to the
instances of white smoke when cold.
There were lots of other things I noticed in your post, but this should help
you get started. I would say: check that the choke is working properly, go
ahead and change the plugs since they are easy and cheap, and definitely fix
that melted clump of wires. Oh yeah, I'd also do a compression test.
Paul
In a message dated 7/15/2004 3:01:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "joel hunter"
<thejoel_hunter@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>here's my dilema. periodically, my 72 has trouble starting. some mornings
>it cranks right up, but i see white smoke. and usually those days, i can
>hear the lifters. on a few occasions, it only stayed running while i held
>the key. on a typical day i have to tug at the carb under the hood and once
>i get it started, i have to keep revving it or it will die. and when i rev
>it, i hear a screech like the alternator is going out.
>on other mornings when its fine, it runs quiet. on those bad occasions,
>i've had to check my wire harness under the steering column. it has melted
>plastic inside the socket for thick red wire. i wrapped some foil around it
>to make it conduct better and crimped a wire running to either side of the
>harness with a crip to keep a current flowing.
>the car has cut completely off on me about 3 times while driving. it will
>die and the brake pedal will turn to stone. it killed at the light, and
>twice while i was coming to a stop. after i let it roll to the side, i
>jiggled the harness and it worked again. other times i'd have to work
>harder and mess with the box on the firewall on the passenger side (ballast
>resistor maybe) and it worked. yesterday all i could get was the cranking
>but it would not turn over and start. i checked my battery cable, then the
>ground that goes to the block. seemed sturdy enough. dont know why but i
>turned the key and the factory am/fm radio knob at the same time and it
>started but i shut it off. nothing again. when i tried that evening it
>cranked right up. and this morning, cranked right up. what is loose or
>going out? should i get an electroninc ignition or is it already electric?
>is my carb bad? there a small spring broken on the lever which i connected
>to the gas pedal. do i just need new plugs?
>
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