<VV> My Corvair Stopped. Why?

[Larry Claypool]

Simple deduction my dear mr. marlow.
 You have fuel, we know the *can* run, so you must be lacking volts. Since
it runs in the crank position, we know the points and such are ok. 
 The problem is likely the resistance wire that feeds the coil. This is in
the engine harness and runs from the main connector plug to about the left
taillight, then turns around and goes back to the 2 wire starter plug. Look
for anyplace the wiring harness may be rubbing something (like the left
secondary), or any signs of the tape melting . either there is an open in
the wire (rare) , it's grounding on something, or the connection at the main
the main plug is making good contact.
lc 

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Marlow [mailto:Vairtec at optonline.net] 
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 10:08 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: My Corvair Stopped. Why?

It was a beautiful summer evening here last night, so I decided to go to a
local cruise night in the 1964 coupe (140-hp, 4-speed).

The car had not been driven since last September and had not even been
started since earlier this Spring.  (This is tantamount to child neglect, I
know, but life sometimes has other priorities.)

Anyway, I start the car (I keep a battery tender on it and it has an
electric fuel pump with a switch with which I can prime the carbs) and I
drive it around the driveway to a shady spot and do a quick cleanup and a
check of the vitals.

I then restart the car and take off for the cruise night...

... I make it less than two miles from the house and the car begins to miss
and buck as if it is not getting fuel.  This worsens over the course of a
quarter mile, until I am forced to give up and coast to the side of the
road, engine dead.

Cranks but will not restart.

I have zero tools with me.  The tool bag is in the trunk, but it turns out
that it is the "wrong" tool bag, it is the one with the spare parts.  The
one with the actual tools in it is back home in the Rampside.

There is gas in the tank and the fuel pump still works, so without tools all
I can do is pop off the air cleaner and check for fuel at the carbs.
Perfectly normal squirts from the accelerator pumps.

So, ever optimistic but planning to turn around if it starts, I crank it
again.  Now it cranks and fires, but dies immediately upon releasing the
key.  This little exercise in doing the same thing while expecting different
results continues for a few minutes before, for the second time in over 40
years of Corvair driving, I call for a tow.

The very accommodating AAA rollback driver backs right up to my garage door
and deposits the car from whence it came an hour earlier.

Not wanting to be defeated by this, I then took the Rampside to the cruise
night.

So, where to begin looking?  Again, it started and ran for five minutes,
then began to miss and lose power, then quit, has gas at the carbs, and will
now fire only for the second before I release the key from the "start"
position.

-Bob Marlow