I f*in hate this car.

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ValiantBandit

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Last week was supposed to be the week where I bought the EFI conversion for my 76 Valiant. Well my wife's Volvo had other plans and I ended up spending the money that I was going to use for the EFI conversion kit on her car. So I figured waiting 2 more weeks to get the kit wouldn't hurt it since tomorrow's paycheck has to pay the rent.

Nope. The car had to fail on me at the worst time. I didn't know I had to work yesterday and I was an hour and 1/2 late. Think the car started for me? Nope. Well it did half-way. It ran until I put it in reverse, where it moved 5 feet and promptly died and continued to roll back another 5 feet. Boy it was AWESOME pushing back a Plymouth Valiant to the front of my garage! :cheers: It did it's stupid crank over **** again and I couldn't get the damned points to unstick.

Today it still did the same thing, so I figured I'd pop off the distributor cap to manually unstick the points. Guess what? Now the damned cap won't go back on. Nope, it won't even sit on the damned distributor correctly and I have no friggin idea why because there's NO REASON why it shouldn't. The rotor is sitting perfectly on the distributor and I'm beyond my wit's end with this stupid car. Anything I've done with this car, it's fought me tooth and nail - even something so mundane as an oil change. Now I have to take my wife's car to work (again) with its retardedly loud exhaust and pray I don't get pulled over.


...God I hate being broke and GOD I HATE THIS CAR. :banghead::banghead:
 
Really !@!!!!!
Move the dist. latchs out of the way....Line up the notch in the cap, to the notch in the distribtor, and latch it.....
And put a Pertroix in that dist. and quit *****'en.....
there not hard to do....

Good luck....
 
Sorry to hear about your car, I've had a couple of them that we're like that. try getting a pertronics pointless distributor and be done with the points for good. If the car seems to have many different issues you can always sell and use the funds to get another a body as a last resort.I ended up selling one that pissed me off enough on a regular basis and using the funds to purchase another A-body. Especially right now when the economy is down and the prices are cheaper to get another A-body.
 
Are you sure you have a points distributor? 76s all came with electronic.
 
racerhog said:
Really !@!!!!!
Move the dist. latchs out of the way....Line up the notch in the cap, to the notch in the distribtor, and latch it.....
And put a Pertroix in that dist. and quit *****'en.....
there not hard to do....

Good luck....
Click to expand...

Yes I know that's what you do to get the cap back on...What I'm saying is it won't go back on and that's exactly what I'm doing.

65 Dartman said:
Are you sure you have a points distributor? 76s all came with electronic.
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I have a ballast resistor so yes..
 
cudajim said:
You ought to just sell the Valiant to me.
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If you're serious, then I am as well. I'm moving in 5 months anyways and I don't want to take the car with me. I'm not kidding - I want to sell the car. I don't have the time or money to work on it.
 
ValiantBandit said:
If you're serious, then I am as well. I'm moving in 5 months anyways and I don't want to take the car with me. I'm not kidding - I want to sell the car. I don't have the time or money to work on it.
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post up sum pics
 
How 'bout dumping that money pit Volvo ?
Foreign cars -- excepting Japanese -- will turn on you after their 3rd birthday , and will eat you alive from that point on !
I like some of them , but wouldn't own one as a daily driver :D .

I'd be really , really surprised to find that your '76 was built with those delicious points . Maybe it's an export car originally ??
Ballast Resistors were used for both ignition systems ; 2-prong for breaker point , 4 prong with electronic .
 
it does not sound like the car to me. it sounds like some young 17-23 y/o that thinks he knows what he is doing, and has no clue.
i do not think you deserve or are ready for a older car. your best bet would be to sell it to someone who will treat it right, and go buy some non-mainenence needing hondata civic!
 
Double UH-OH. A '76 Dart would be electronic ignition anyway. I wonder what "points" he is trying to unstick. Probably wiped out the air gap and damaged the reluctor wheel. I will give him a break on the dist. cap if it's a slanty. 318, no way. Patience Patience Patience. Somebody might get a good bargain out of this. Remember - you can always tune a piano, but you can't tunafish.
 
I say walk away for a little bit and chill.
First off lets get that cap back on,when you pulled the cap maybe the rotor got pull up and turn on ya.Try pushing down on the rotor and wiggling back and forth,and like the others said make sure the clips and nothing else is in the way.
Also if this is recurring problem start off my telling us what motor you got and what it is doing there are so many variable so the more info the better.
Dude me and others can fix that car on the internet if you are willing to do as we tell you.
Hell it could be a bad ballast,bad ignition switch,fuel filter......
Post picture of the cap if you can not get it back on...
Ever been so angry that you were blinded to what is right in front of you....
Just Chill......
 
TXDart said:
I say walk away for a little bit and chill.
First off lets get that cap back on,when you pulled the cap maybe the rotor got pull up and turn on ya.Try pushing down on the rotor and wiggling back and forth,and like the others said make sure the clips and nothing else is in the way.
Also if this is recurring problem start off my telling us what motor you got and what it is doing there are so many variable so the more info the better.
Dude me and others can fix that car on the internet if you are willing to do as we tell you.
Hell it could be a bad ballast,bad ignition switch,fuel filter......
Post picture of the cap if you can not get it back on...
Ever been so angry that you were blinded to what is right in front of you....
Just Chill......
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Yes my anxiety is running haywire and when it comes to working on this car, my anger definitely gets thte best of me. Can you blame me? I get paid a whole $370 tomorrow. $366 of it goes towards rent which leaves $4 for me for 2 weeks. I pulled the rotor off to inspect it...Maybe I didn't push it down all the way. You know I have no problem working on someone else's car but when it comes to mine, my anxiety gets so bad that I can't even concentrate.

Yes, it's a reoccurring problem. When this problem arises, I've pulled the plugs (which smell of gas) and none of them get spark. Yeah if it's electronic ignition, I'd imagine that the ignition coil is the culprit, but I honestly don't know. I get so damned nervous working on my own car because God forbid I mess something up out here - I don't have a fallback option and car repair shops out here gouge you and/or don't have a clue as to what they're doing.


340plot said:
it does not sound like the car to me. it sounds like some young 17-23 y/o that thinks he knows what he is doing, and has no clue.
i do not think you deserve or are ready for a older car. your best bet would be to sell it to someone who will treat it right, and go buy some non-mainenence needing hondata civic!
Click to expand...

No it sounds like a 27 year old married man struggling to make ends meet, underemployed and working 20 hours a week whos daily driver was made when Jimmy Carter was president. See how calm and collective you can be when your gross pay is $150 a week. I have severe fibromyalgia. It's chronic pain. Leaning over my car kills my back. I don't appreciate your ignorant comment. Oh and by the way - I used to be a car shop manager up in Rhode Island. For your information in the 8 years I worked there, I never saw a car come into that shop that had ignition points because 90% of old New England cars are rotted out so please, can you forgive me?

LH23H2R said:
How 'bout dumping that money pit Volvo ?
Foreign cars -- excepting Japanese -- will turn on you after their 3rd birthday , and will eat you alive from that point on !
I like some of them , but wouldn't own one as a daily driver :D .

I'd be really , really surprised to find that your '76 was built with those delicious points . Maybe it's an export car originally ??
Ballast Resistors were used for both ignition systems ; 2-prong for breaker point , 4 prong with electronic .
Click to expand...

The Volvo isn't a money pit. It's a 200 series - one of the best cars ever made and unlike my Valiant, it starts up, runs and drives every time I turn the key. If my wife took care of the car, I wouldnt've had to replace all of the motor mounts and driver's side tie rod end. Anyways my ballast resistor has 2 prongs on the left hand side and 2 prongs on the right hand side.
 
bruceo2011 said:
Double UH-OH. A '76 Dart would be electronic ignition anyway. I wonder what "points" he is trying to unstick. Probably wiped out the air gap and damaged the reluctor wheel. I will give him a break on the dist. cap if it's a slanty. 318, no way. Patience Patience Patience. Somebody might get a good bargain out of this. Remember - you can always tune a piano, but you can't tunafish.
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I highly doubt I damaged the reluctor wheel. I never force anything on a car. Yes my car is a slant six, hence why I posted in the slant six forum......
A good deal out of this? I'm not an idiot...I know what my car is worth and it's not much because it's a 4 door. Its only saving grace is the fact it's completely rust free which leads me to expect nothing less than $1000 in its current condition and $1500 in running condition.
 
Alright,no fire and gas fouled plugs...

do you have a volt meter or a test light?
 
well, i only respoded to your own words. you said even changing the oil has caused you hassle...?
if you are complaining about how hard it was to change the oil, then maybe this is not the car for you. that is all i am saying.
then you are complaing about it being built so long ago!. you knew that before you bought it!
HERE IS MY POINT. ON ONE HAND, YOU ARE GRIPING ABOUT GETTING THE DIST. CAP BACK ON, AND ON ANOTHER HAND YOU SAY HOW BROKE YOU ARE, AND THEN ONCE AGAIN, YOU SAY HOW YOU ARE TRYING TO SCRAPE UP THE MONEY TO BUY EFI FOR THE CAR!,. ARE YOU NUTS? WHAT DO YOU NEED EFI ON A CAR THAT WAS MADE WHEN JIMMY CARTER WAS PRESIDENT...................... SEE MY POINT?
 
I don't think the rotor is on the dist shaft correctly. Pull it off again, and look inside. You'll see the tang that has to fall into the notch in the dist shaft. Line them up by eye, then, as you push down (sometimes quite a bit) twist the rotor until it drops down all the way. Once you've proven the rotor is on correctly and fully seated on the dist shaft, reinstall the cap.
I dunno what points you're unsticking if it's an electronic ignition.

Hope this helps.
Try to remain calm.

George
 
sounds to me like a guy extremely frustrated and I know we have all been there at some time in our life. Be it a car problem, house ,or even personal problem. sometimes we have to vent and the last thing we would need is some one aggravating the situation. Guess this would be the time to help,kinda thought this site was all about. JMO

Moe
 
The carb has fowled your plugs or your coil is in need of replacing maybe
If my old car stopped running I bet I can figure out what is wrong and fix it myself..
Now if I had a Volvo that just quit running I would be looking at spending a months pay just to have it diagnosed and replace a part or parts to make it run again.. JMO

when it ran did it run good ?
if not what was it doing ?
 
BE NICE OR BE SILENT < in cap"s so now i"m yelling rudely...and if it has points or electronic ignition it is supposed to have a ballast resistor so start there,my duster had an intermittant problem and it turned out to be the coil but it still needs an ballast resistor and especially with points it needs one
340plot said:
well, i only respoded to your own words. You said even changing the oil has caused you hassle...?
If you are complaining about how hard it was to change the oil, then maybe this is not the car for you. That is all i am saying.
Then you are complaing about it being built so long ago!. You knew that before you bought it!
Here is my point. On one hand, you are griping about getting the dist. Cap back on, and on another hand you say how broke you are, and then once again, you say how you are trying to scrape up the money to buy efi for the car!,. Are you nuts? What do you need efi on a car that was made when jimmy carter was president...................... See my point?
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