Hi Harry,
Sorry if I'm late to the party here. A few things to consider and one I'm particularly curious about is "ammeter needle jumps when rough idle occurs". Does it just vibrate a little or does it go completely discharge as if a short is occurring? Alternator gauges have always been sketchy since, if left stock, every drop of electricity running the vehicle goes thru that gauge. If the gauge is crusty internally it may not be able to supply enough juice for the ignition. so is the gauge causing the rough idle?
1) remove the speaker grille, loosen and pull back the heater controls, reach around and bypass the alternator gauge by either removing either one of the wires attached to it (I think a 3/8 nut) and piggy-backing it onto the other terminal. Doesn't matter which one. If the gauge disintegrates when you remove the nuts that's an indication. BUT it may not be your problem. Check it out anyway.
2) Did you replace the distributor entirely or just replace the points with Pertronix? I'm not a fan of Pertronix having heard too many stories of people having issues with them. Yes, that was years ago, I don't know if they've Improved. I'd eliminate it, go back to points and condenser, at least for testing purposes. Is dwell angle steady or is it all over the place? Has the distributor itself been checked on a machine?
- Side Note: Are you still dealing with the original 58 year old wiring in the car? That can be corroded, not only at terminal ends but also inside, under the casing where you can't see it. I think there might be an article on the club website about that. At any rate, if you've got points back in there, quick bypass of the ancient spaghetti, similar to going around the alternator gauge, is easy. With ignition switch off, hotwire the car by running a wire from Battery + to Coil +. Hit the starter relay terminal old-school style with a screwdriver and start the car. Now you're running on pure battery juice without the possibility of losses thru the harness.
3) What spark plugs are in there? yeah, stupid and simple but some vehicles not designed for platinum plugs don't like them for some reason. I learned that 20 years ago when I put platinum plugs in a "new" Dakota and it ran like crap. A friend at the dealership laughed and said put standard plugs back in... it ran perfect after.
4) Which "new Edelbrock carb" was put in? Why? Yeah I can guess... it's easier to get one of those than to figure out the proper carb that the car was born with.. if you still have it. Anyway, I hope the new carb is 750 cfm. If not, it's too small and likely not jetted correctly for a Big Block. Very few guys left who actually really know carbs. Jeff Dreibus, The Old Carb Doctor is one.
5) All the above is assuming you've already compression and/or leak-down tested the engine and all seems OK. Also assuming you know for sure you haven't fully or partially wiped a cam lobe. That's pretty easy to check by pulling the valve covers. So many variables including shit gas and shit oil.
Sorry if I rambled... maybe I covered something your mechanic hasn't checked yet.
Mike Laiserin
-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Torgeson <torg66@xxxxxxxxx>
To: chrysler-300-club-international@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Fri, Jun 10, 2022 11:35 am
Subject: {Chrysler 300} 1964 300K Idle
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