So i was on my way up to washington last wee kand i get to portland when all of a sudden my car died...the car wasnt hot the carb didnt flud and i had oil and i didnt blow a head gasket... this is what i came up with

1. Timing chain and gear
2. camshaft
3. Harmonic Balancer
4. The Drive gear on the distibutor cap wore out

Anyone know what the problem might be..my car is a 1976 camaro 305V8 all original 111K miles with a rebuilt tranny only 10K miles

 

Are those the problems you actually found, or is that your diagnosis? Most sudden failures, outside of the engine breaking, are due to electrical problems. I never knew distributor caps had a drive gear. lol

 

What was it doing just before it died? Did it just stop dead, or sputter before it died?
Did you try CPR?
If it's still here in Portland, drop me an email and maybe I can take a look at it to help?

 

yea it has a drive gear the gear is at the end of the distributor it connects into the block which allows it to turn and gives the cap power which i think is the problem...

1971bb427...No its here is everett now i have it in a storage place cause my house has a home owner association wich wont let me work on it... if u wanna come up and check it out that will be a big help

 

Wish it was closer, I'd definitely look at it. Might be awhile before I get through Everett on the way to my son's place in Ferndale.

 

That is the distributor drive gear, it connects to the gear at the back end of the camshaft and it spins the rotor. Remove the distributor cap and see if the rotor spins when you crank the engine.

 

And if the rotor is spinning, you can rule out #1, 2, & 4. How would the harmonic dampener make the engine kill? Unless it flew apart and sliced up some wires in the process.
1. Check for spark.
2. Check for fuel (remove the air cleaner, take a looky-see down the throat of the carb, and pump the throttle. Do you see gas squirting? If not, you's gots a fuel problem.

 

Z28Pete: I am going this weekend and going to check the gear and if thats the problem that solves alot of problems.

Camaro 69: the gas is not shooting into the carb i dont know if it a bad pump or what. The harmonic balancer will die out over time and it allows the car to turn over and all that and if it break it wont allow the timming to work and it could have thrown the timming off haha i got so many problems with it after driving it for 12hrs

1971BB427: well email when you get a chance to come up my email is rpkapis@yahoo.com

 

If your not getting gas to the carb,it may be the fuel filter.Years ago i had a car just die out while i was driving,i spent a few hours trying to find the cause then gave up and called my father in law.He was only there 2 minutes and had it running again,just pulled the small filtercleaned it off and i drove home.

 

The harmonic balancer does not affect timing, it just acts as an indicator for your timing light, unless you have some aftermarket crank trigger setup. If the balancer ring slipped or the whole assembly dissapeared, it still won't affect timing but will make it harder to set the timing as the TDC indicator won't be in the right place. The real purpose of the harmonic balancer is to stop crankshaft vibration and keep the crankshaft from breaking.