Re: Quitting Engine

Posted by Lew on July 24, 1998 at 08:15:40

In Reply to: Quitting Engine
posted by Rick Black on July 23, 1998 at 23:02:33

: The VERY SAME THING has been affecting my 1931 Deluxe Tudor.It has only 3000 since a total restoration.On my way back from the MAFCA national meet in Reno (I'd driven 250 miles that day in 85 degree temperatures), the engine began to run rough.I played with the mixture, thinking I had some bad gasoline.That didn't help.
: I got off the Interstate and limped to a gas station/phone.When I came to a stop, the engine died and wouldn't restart.I got on the phone and called my wife.She met me about 10 minutes later.We were going to leave the car and come back for it when I decided to try it one more time.It started right up and ran smoothly - for about 5 minutes. I suspected the condensor - but my "spare" was 1/4" too short (and marked "Motorcraft". We left the car there and towed it home the next day.
: When we got home, I put in a new condensor and went on a road test.For 30 minutes, it drove just fine.Then, after being parked for an hour, I drove away and it started missing again, although not as bad as it had the last week.I limped home and pulled the distributor.
: I noticed a rivet loose under the point spring - looked like it might move upward and short out.I reset all the rivets and reinstalled the plate, making sure the fiber washer under the point post was in place and that the wire to the lower plate wouldn't touch the side of the housing.I checked the point gap, lubed the cam, cleaned and gapped the spark plugs, and put it all back together again.
: I only had time for a short, 6-mile ride to test it out, but so far it's running well.If the problem recurs, I guess I'll try replacing the coil, but with only 3000 miles since new, that would be a long shot.
: If you have a break-thru figuring out what your problem was caused by, please drop me a line or post a response.
Rick, I think that you may have found part of your problem, but there is something else that you may want to check, that is the lower plate, where the popout screws into the distributor, some of the repo parts are such poor quality that by screwing in the popout, you actually force the lower plate, where the dimple is, into the dist casting, causing a short. A cure for this is to remove the lower plate, and build up a few layers of electrical tape on the back side of the dimpled area, thereby insulating the lower plate. Hope this helps

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