55 Patrician Conked Out While Idling, Won't Start

Posted by Trevor On 2017/3/4 15:45:50

Now what is this? After I came back from a 2 week business trip the morning after I got up I started up the Patrician to warm it up and take it around the block a bit - I don't want it to sit too long without action.

He started up just fine, idled beautifully. I was actually really surprised after a 2 week slumber.....then, IT happened.

1.https://youtu.be/qPNNS6h3Y_Q

Not sure if I can embed the video or not but the link above is a quick clip. Suddenly the car started idling very rough. I gave it a little gas just in case is wasn't getting enough, didn't help. It backfired and eventually knocked out. I haven't been able to restart it since. It tries like heck, but just isn't "catching."

Took off the air filter, no obstructions, the glass bowl has fuel in it. Brought a friend over who is more knowledgable than I. We checked the battery, it was sitting at 12.3v so clearly that was fine and the generator was working well when it was previously idling because the battery tender had been off of it for nearly a week.

We hooked up a spark tester to see if that could be it:

2.https://youtu.be/MUATFmMojUs

We thought it seemed a little dim and that it was a little odd that the light seemed to almost always be on, but we're both used to newer cars so we weren't sure if that was a quirk or maybe we have an electrical issue here.

Any of you out there have a theory on this? The fuel tank is new and from the outward appearance so is the fuel pump. I'm flummoxed and would like to trouble shoot and repair this on my own.