What is wrong with my Jeep? Please help!!!

I need some diagnostic help on my '71 CJ5 before I stick my hand in the fan blades.

The Jeep:
71 CJ5
6-225 engine
Not a daily driver... 1500 mi/yr
No major work done recently. Always has a picky carb at elevation (I'm in Denver)

The problem:
Yesterday while hitting some trails it was very picky and kept dying at lower RPM. I figured it was the carb adjustment and readjusted and increased the idle speed and it did better. Then after an OK day of Jeeping it died about a mile from the house. I towed it home. It wouldn't start. It tried to turn over and cranks but I don't know if its firing. It doesn't catch and the engine doesn't engage.
This morning I tried to start it and it started right up. To be safe I decided to put in a new fuel filter and fuel pump. I did those today and it started easier afterward. I had it idling for 45-ish minutes while I washed it down from our trip yesterday and right when I was finishing it died again and wouldn't start.
I tried putting the portable jumper battery on it to see if that helped, but it didn't make a difference. I tried putting gasoline and starter fluid directly into the carb, but no difference.
I did notice when I put gasoline into the carb the last time some seemed to come out a little hole in the side of the carb body. I'm thinking its an overflow drain kind of thing, but I'd never seen it before.
Any ideas? Please help.
I'll give a chocolate chip cookie to whoever can help me get her running again (you have to pick it up at my house though).
Thanks, everyone!
Jay

 

bad coil? you didnt mention points or electronic?

 

Can you get us a pic of this hole in the side of the carb? Shouldn't be one unless it's where an auto-choke was supposed to be.

 

I don't know if its points or electronic. How do I tell?

 

Here is a picture of the side of the hole. Looking at it again I don't know if that's actually part of the carb. I did, however, impress myself I figured out how to upload pictures.[/IMG]

 

Here is a pic of the distributor without the cap

Thanks for your help.

How much do you think a coil will be at the local auto parts store? $10? $50? $100? Maybe I'll just put one in. It can't hurt.[/IMG]

 

Looks like they are $20-40. I'll get one tomorrow and stick it in.

Anything else I should try?

 

is that an uncovered vacuum pipe in your carb pic?
( above the hose clamps)

 

the shotgun approach to problems seldom works...except for emptying your wallet.
get back to the basics
is it getting fuel ?
is it getting spark ?
go from there

 

That hole looks to me like the hole for the throttle butterfly shaft. If fuel is coming out of it after you manually primed it, it may be worn loose or you may have just primed it excessively. Gasoline will come through a very close clearance gap.

When the shaft is loose in the hole in the throttle body you get a vacuum leak that will cause idle problems. Someone else noted you seem to have an open vacuum port, that one goes to your vacuum advance on the distributor.

Your problem sounds more heat related, because it dies after running for a while. When it quits, you need to determine whether or not you have spark.

If there is spark present when it has died after running, then you may be looking at fuel related problems. Otherwise, I would suspect ignition problems first.

Don

When an ignition system fails under heat load, I would suspect first the coil then the condenser.

 

That is the idle adjust screw. You have the standard delco ignition distributor so depending on which coil you are using, you may also be using a ballast resistor. When this baby gets hot it can open circuit causing loss of ignition.

The hole you are red lining in pic is the throttle shaft. I was loosing a slight bit of vacuum on mine so I put a dab of high-temp RTV there and plugged it.

 

Agreed to all.

 

Thanks for all of the help.

I stuck in a new ignition coil ($25) and have it idling in the driveway now.

I'll keep y'all posted.

 

It died again.

I took it for a short ride and left it idling. I did notice the exhaust had more of a blue color to it than usual, if that means anything.

What's next? Any ideas?

 

How do I check to see if its a problem with this hot ballast resistor? Is that something fixable or just another Jeep thing I should learn to deal with?

 

I checked V-DC between the + coil terminal and ground.

With the key on, it was 5.6V. With the key/engine cranking it was 4.5V.

What does this mean?