76 Spider Starting trouble

[KevinOhio5]

I recently purchased a '76 Abarth Clone. I'm new to this, so hang on…

I just replaced the alternator and external voltage regulator. Last Saturday, I put 50 miles on the car. The first 40 miles she ran like a dream. The last 10 miles, it started backfiring and losing power. It stalled 1/2 mile from my house, but I was able to restart and sputter home.

Now, the car turns over but idles poorly. With my foot on the accelerator, the RPMs never get above 1500. When I let off the gas, it dies.

The only leak appears to be from the radiator. I am planning on replacing the fuel filter & cleaning the carb with spray & compressed air (not completely dismantling). I haven’t checked the points, as the distributor and hoses appear to be new (about the only thing new on the car).

Any suggestions on where else to start looking?

Thanks.

[So Cal Mark]

I'd definitely check the point gap, but you may have a condensor that has failed. When you are trying to rev the engine does it misfire?

[KevinOhio5]

My foot is literally on the floor to get it just to idle. It does not backfire, but I haven't kept it running like this for more than 10 seconds or so.

Any thoughts or recommendations for going electronic? It appers to be fairly staightforward; simply replace the distributor and coil/module. Then again, many ideas sould like good ones on paper.

[So Cal Mark]

have you checked the cam timing to make sure the t-belt didn't slip?

[KevinOhio5]

It was the distributor. As mentioned, it looked new so I didn't carefully check. The previous owner replaced the entire unit, set the points, but did NOT apply any cam lube. Therefore, the contacts wore down after driving less than 100 miles.

Thanks for the help in any case. To anyone else reading this... don't forget the cam lube!

[So Cal Mark]

sometimes the smallest things can cause such big trouble