1960 Engine Rough

[60eldo]

 So my car is running perfect for 3 yrs now. All of a sudden yesterday upon acceleration, the engine is vibrating, at idle its smooth. Any help would be great. I pulled the plugs, they look good and are firing on each cylinder. I also changed the coil,,,,nothing. Seems electrical to me.

[James Landi]

When you say "vibrating" are you suggesting that it's running on less than 8 cylinders?  is the vibration occurring during acceleration, i.e. when you engage the engine and NOT when the car is rolling/coasting?  And even more specifically, does the vibration increase on grades/hills?   My point being that separating all of the running gear from the motor will begin to provide a diagnosis.  So that an engine that is miss firing will transfer vibration when under load, but much less so, if at all, when the car is coasting.... or even coasting in neutral. A car that continues to vibrate when the engine is, essentially off, has an issue with the "running gear," including tires, wheel bearing(s), universal joints,      hope this helps  James

[60eldo]

 Yes during acceleration only, not coasting. And yes more shake as I go up hills. Now today I dont know if this is just coincidence, but when I turned on the radio, while car is on ACC, its fine,when I started the car the radio is jumping or skipping. This is wierd.

[dadscad]

Running good for 3 years.......if you mean by the radio is jumping that there's ignition static......

Most likely,  it's time for a tune up.  Points, condenser, distributor cap, rotor, plug wires and plugs. Set dwell, timing, idle and balance the carburetor.

[TJ Hopland]

Does the distributor advance run off ported or manifold vac?    If its manifold at idle it would be advanced till you were hard on the gas when it would retard.   Perhaps there is some carbon in the cap so when its in the retard mode its misfiring?   Or there is a connection problem with the ground or points wire so when the advance is moving the connection is intermittent?

If its running in ported vacuum then it will be retarded at idle so if that was where the connection was failing you would expect it to do it at idle too. 

[Driftwood62]

Outside of ignition and engine mechanicals, perhaps it is as simple as a collapsed transmission mount allowing vibration in to the chassis

[bctexas]

Jon,

Have a look at the pulley on the front of the crankshaft with the engine running.  If it is wobbling you have a bad harmonic balancer and in my experience that can cause the vibrations you describe. 

[walt chomosh #23510]

60 eldo,
   As another member suggested have you motor and trans mounts looked at. If your crank dampener hasn't been rebuilt then maybe it's time also. I ran into an issue once with my 1955CDV that I couldn't find and it turned out to be my motor mounts. As we all know, rubber products deteriorate at advanced age. My car was smooth at times and but had a vibration at other times. Climbing a hill will torque the motor in it's mounts.....walt...tulsa,ok