Alright, so my pop's car is running like total shit. When on, the whole car shakes like an earthquake. It's like the motor's unbalanced all of a sudden. The only thing we could find wrong was a spark plug wire burnt on the manifold, so we replaced it. Still runs like shit.

 

when idling, in gear, etc?

 

Are the u-joints any good?

 

+1 the rubber is probalby falling apart.

 

yep, sure sounds like the balancer.

 

Did you replace the spark plug while you were at it?

 

definatley the balancer

 

Does the balancer go bad like that in those engines? I thought it was one piece. This thing vibrates so hard the body panels are moving when at idle.

I checked the timing, which should've been at the 10* BTDC, but the timing mark, if looking at the balancer from the front, is at about 8 o'clock. You can also hear the exhaust make a nice pinging sound when the throttle is hit. I'm thinking homeboy jumped a tooth on the timing chain. I think the car is close to 200 miles, never had a replacement chain or gears, so it's likely, right?

I tried to rotate the distributor back to having the 10* BTDC mark between the marker lines, but when I get close, it wants to stall.

I guess that could be due to the balancer taking a shit too, right? If that outer ring spun, it'd be impossible to time the thing. What's more likely?

 

along with the rest, i'd go with the balancer spining. it's got a rubber "seal" between the inner and outer pieces, which has probably let go.