Idle speed question

[Draney89]

Hi, I'm new to all this so heres my question. I have a '64 monza and was adjusting the curb idle speed. I set it to 500 rpms and it died and I can't get it to crank back up. It was idling at about 800 rpms before I adjusted it down and I did 1/4 turns on both carburetors idle speed screws. After it wouldn't crank I tried adjusting it back up and it still won't crank. Please Help!

[cvair4life]

By crank do you mean the starter doesn't engage and nothing moves? Or do you mean it won't fire while the starter is turning the pistons? Either way there is more to this than simply having adjusted down the idle speed.

[rjgasco]

Make sure you have a well charged battery and I would double check timing. Just to rule those things out. I know these don't have timing chains, but I once had small block chevy in a daily driver that I went out and started up. While I was waiting for it to warm up it suddenly cut out. I spent two hours getting it to start again, but it would only run over 2200 rpm. Got her home and pulled the front cover, sure enough the timing jumped...

[flat6_musik]

By crank do you mean the starter doesn't engage and nothing moves? Or do you mean it won't fire while the starter is turning the pistons? Either way there is more to this than simply having adjusted down the idle speed.

Yeah, what he said......you DO mean it cranks and doesn't start, right? First off, check for a good hot spark. Hopefully, it didn't flood out or foul out the plugs. Sometimes an engine will be chugging along, rich as hell, and then it gets shut off and the driver will "give it a few pumps" before he restarts it.......and then it definitely flooded out and plugs fouled. I like to always smell my exhaust at idle, make sure it's not too "fat".

[Draney89]

The starter engages but it just won't turn over. It had a miss before I started messing with it and after the fact I was told I should have taken care of that 1st then worried about the idle speed. I'll check the plugs and see if they're fouled. Thanks for the tips.

[corvairian1]

Try taking the air cleaner off and insert a screwdriver in each carb throat to keep the choke valves open a crack. then try to start it without giving it gas or to much. I hope this helps.

[Draney89]

Got it started back up now :D Plugs were fouled. Thanks again!