Hi, When I'm having mysterious problems with a car, my strategy is usually to check quickly for problems with the ignition, then fuel delivery, then air, then maybe mechanical bogosities (i.e., cracked piston or something). If that doesn't find the problem, I go back and make sure everything is exactly right: I'll check (and make correct) the spark plugs, wires, coil, distributor, points, condenser, timing. Getting everything exactly right and checking it can take a while, but once you're really sure everything is perfect, it's time to move on to fuel: Check the fuel supply into the carb, check for vacuum leaks (hoses or cracks in the manifold, etc.), check the operation of the choke, throttle, etc. If that's all OK, make sure the engine is getting air. For example, my brother's Fiat was performing very badly (he thought it was normal). When I changed the (obviously very dirty) air filter, performance must have doubled. Finally, if all of the above checks out OK, look for mechanical problems: Check the compression, etc. Occasionally I've done a tune-up on my bus and it's worked fine for a while, but performance has quickly gotten worse (say, within 20 or 200 miles). Sometimes it was the point gap dropping quickly because I hadn't lubed the distributor cam correctly and the follower was wearing away. Once I apparently didn't tighten the distributor hold-down bolt enough and the distributor had vibrated around, changing the timing. It's easy to get crap in the points by over-lubing the distributor cam follower (or by having fat, greasy fingers :). If you have a bad condenser, the points can wear amazingly quickly, to where the vehicle won't run. I hope you can get this sucker going again! Do you have the Muir book? It has some pretty good step-by-step procedures for tracking down problems like this. Dennis
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