My 1969 chevelle 350SS has given me a rough time. It was finished about 2 years ago, and ran smoothly for about a year and a half. Granted it was only for about 500 miles over those 2 years, but now, it will barely start.

When I try to start the car it ALWAYS takes 2 turns to get it to start. I have to keep the ignition on for maybe 10 seconds the first time and it won't start, then the 2nd time i try it starts right up.

After it starts up it seems to be choking out and lower RPMs. It's very erratic. Once you get to maybe 2.5k+ RPMs it runs a lot smoother, but there are still a lot of jolts and jumps. I changed the fuel pump and fuel tank thinking that there was rust in it and that the fuel pumps sock was clogged, and that didn't do anything.

I'm starting to think its the points, or a bad carb adjustment (even though I paid for its adjustment).

Any ideas? I can make a video if necessary.

How long does it sit between using the car? I would check the points, cap, rotor etc. check the ignition system and then look into the carb.

Gasoline doesn' last long in a fuel tank that sits for months-years?? Store-more is a gasoline additive-lots of other name brands. Gas will turn sour in the tank and you might have to drain the gas. Fuel filters go bad with gas sitting for months. Drain the tank and add new gasoline to the tank.Change the Fuel Filter. Your carburetor is probably full of junk. If you have points and condensor...Think about a upgrade-???

Sounds to me like gook plugging up the low speed jets in the carb. You can try pouring some stuff like Seafoam in the gas, but odds are you will have to disassemble the carb and clean it out.

When I try to start the car it ALWAYS takes 2 turns to get it to start. I have to keep the ignition on for maybe 10 seconds the first time and it won't start, then the 2nd time i try it starts right up.


What carb is this? A Qjet? If it is, could be the carb is "leaking down" or the gas is simply evaporating out of the float bowl. When you crank it for 10 seconds, you could be reloading the float bowl with gas. Does this do this if you restart it immediately or after a day or so?

If its only been a few months, I doubt the gas is bad.

IMHO, if I paid someone to adjust something and it runs worse than when I took it there, they would be adjusting it again for free until they got it right.

my guess is might be an internal vacuum leak in the carb. maybe a dried up gasket in there? if it ran fine before sitting, i would check out the carb first. no reason any ignition problems would occur from sitting.