About 2 years ago, I started restoring Dad's '67 Chevelle Malibu w/ 283 and Rochester 2 bbl. and auto transmission which had been sitting for 3 years. It has under 100k original miles. Installed new plugs, points, cap, rotor, and wires. Checked timing and dwell. Everything OK, ran great. Drove it over to my garage an parked it for another year, due to lack of $$$ to continue. Went to start it..it ran rough for a few seconds and died. I then had the carb re-built. I re-installed the carb and it exhibits the exact same symptoms. Idles rough for a few seconds and then dies. Any ideas??? Could the coil be on its way out???

I'm assuming that you drained tank and put in new gas?

Does it re-start and then die repeatedly? If so, it might be a vacuum leak that interferes with the idle. Can you get it started and keep it running at a really fast idle? If it can do that, then the problem probably is in the idle circuit.

Likely you have a vacuum leak, or the choke pulloff has "gone fishing".

Mike

Thanks for your prompt replies. Gas tank has been drained, and refilled with new gas. I cannot maintain a fast idle. Vacuum line from carb. to distributor looks good. I'll check the vacuum line from the manifold to the transmission.

I checked all the vacuum lines and did not find any cracks. I replaced the ignition coil with no success. As a last resort, I replaced the points thinking that they might have gotten corroded from sitting around for a long time...cranked the engine to set dwell...engine fired and ran great!!! Thanks again.