[FWDLK] 56 plymouth starting trouble

["56plymouth@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <plymouth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

my plymouth belvedere has had some starting problems as of late, that I
assumed were related to the changed carburator of about 6 weeks ago. the car
would start up fine from a cold start, but after driving it for a while,
stopping it, it would not. I could hold the key hearing the engine turn over
until finally, sometimes 30 seconds or so, the car would spring to life. I
thought, perhaps a carburator issue?

then a few days ago, the car began sputtering, even at high speeds (not
jerking, but I could tell the engine was not running smooth) and it seemed
to me it was a fuel delivery problem, and I again thought the carburator.
but I don't know much about cars. it would even stall after driving on the
highway for an hour, once I came to a stop at an intersection or what have
you. then the final blow came after three days of irregular engine running,
the car stalled for the final time, and would not come back to life. the
engine turns over, but the car won't start. in the days prior it was
stalling, to such an extent that I put it in neutral to keep from konking
out at stop lights.

so, following my suspicion, I swapped back to the previous carburator to no
avail (this old one was removed for no other reason than me having a brand
new one to try out). we swapped the coil and ballast resistor (basically
brand new ones my friend was using in his 56 dodge) and still the engine
would not turn over.

we then tried to see if there was any sort of spark, by pulling the cable
from a spark plug and seeing if that would spark. nothing, or very little at
times. then, we tried removing the main wire from the center of the
distributor cap that is connected to the coil to see if that was sparking at
all, and that was very little or nothing at all. (on the 56 dodge these
tests produced spark showers) so, my friend was thinking that it was an
electrical problem, and that we should go directly from the 12 volt battery
to the ballast resistor (to bypass any potential wiring issues) to see if we
could get a spark when I tried to start the car, and we still got nothing.

today, I tried to get clean off the distributor points, and the rotor, as
this was another suggestion from a gearhead friend of mine. this also did
not work, but I'm getting new ones tomorrow anyway. as well as a condensor.

so now my car is dead on the side of the road, just before it's winter nap.

any ideas?

thanks in advance.

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     glenn.a.lagasse: : : : : : : : : : :boy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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     .1956.Plymouth.Belvedere.4-door.Hardtop.Sport.Sedan.
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