Ok guys, I'm sure you've seen the bumper thread...

Now that I installed the new bumper, I went to back it up, and the sammy fired, then died. No problem, hadn't been run in a few days...right?

Well, I tried to crank it again, and it just cranks and cranks and cranks...wont fire! Now I feel like a real idiot!

I didn't change ANYTHING else.

I am smelling fuel, so it's not a fuel problem.

What's the best way to check spark on these?

Timing and compression are fine, it ran perfect 2 days ago.

The only thing I did was disconnect the battery when hooking up the new lights.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Shawn

pull # 1 plug and put plug wire back on it, lay the bottom of the plug on a ground(exhaust manni) and have someone crank it over, you should see spark.  Also was this the first start up after the lights were installed

This was the first start after the lights, why is that?

They are tied into the factory harness, same number of wires, nothing fancy.

Thanks
Shawn

Figured it out.

Turns out the choke was sticking on the carbureator. Turned it over and had my uncle push the choke open with a screwdriver and it fired right up...runs good again.

Weird 

Any idea how to prevent that? I'm 'Carb Stupid'...I can handle EFI, but don't know anything about carbs (I'm a young guy, grew up EFI).

SQ

Sounds like you should buy uncle lunch and keep him close. LOL !

Way back when cars had carburetors, it was often necessary to stick a pencil down the carb to hold the choke open to get the engine started.  This was especially common on Ramblers and Fords that used the Carter YF single barrel carb.  The nice thing was it was easy because the air cleaner was held on by one wing nut and didn't have a bunch of hoses and junk attached to it...

We never did come up with a fix for it, we just made sure to keep a pencil in the glove box.  It was a part of life back then.  Even my wife learned how to do it.  This was her car...

pull # 1 plug and put plug wire back on it, lay the bottom of the plug on a ground(exhaust manni) and have someone crank it over, you should see spark.  Also was this the first start up after the lights were installed

thats really weird that happend because about a week ago i parked my sami outside over night the next morning i went to fire it up and it did exactly what you described but i kept cranking it until it fired and i let it idle and warm up then i went to move it and as soon as i would give it a little gas and take my foot off the clutch it would slowely bog donw and quit i dont know whats wrong with it i just thought that was weird

Check the choke plate/flap on the carb...easy fix now that I know what the problem was!

jzap, cool story and cool car! My uncle is only 37, so he probably wasn't around in those days. He did however race in a 4cyl division at the local circle track for about 15yrs, and all of the engines used holley 5200's and webers...so I assume it has happened before.

I was thinking it may have to do with that 'wax-ball' I've read about...

SQ

WAX BALL???

Do a search for 'Wax Pellet'....