So i finally found the cause of my problem and to you old school guys who know points like the back of your hand its gonna sound like im an idiot... But i am a younger mechanic used to fuel injection... The spring on the points was missing, i thought the copper strip that connects to the stud in the distributor also supplied the needed tension to keep the points on the cam but obviously not. The points were floating. Thanks guys for all the input and i can finally run down the road with the rest of the traffic!
I had the exact same problem with a FORD. The same RPM in every gear. Turned out to be the spring tention on the points. They started foating at that RPM. I bent the spring arm to give them a nice snap closing and all was well after that. Good luck. Larry
See, I told ya it would be something simple that we hadn't even thought of, and impossible to guess at from a distance. Im just glad you figured it out and you are up and running now. Thats one you never will forget. Gary
Back here on post 23, you caught the scent!! only a matter of time after that!! Good on you. For actually figuring that out. It means you pay attention and eliminate.......... Hey, that was one of my guesses! Point dwell; at high rpm your point dwell was zero...............ha. The other upside is now you have a story to tell your grandkids. I suggest you jot down a summary of this event and store it. I'm not confused. It's pretty obvious what happened, now that OP has found the problem........... and any one of us could have missed that. Babbitt ponder? That’s a myth, parroted by people that just don’t know. Babbitt bearings, if worn out, they knock just like any bearing will, but otherwise they are the same, durability-wise, as insert bearings. The downside isn’t the Babbitt bearings, it's the splash and dip and gravity feed oiling. On a race track constant centrifugal force caused the oil to spill out of the rod dipper trays and the main reservoir cavities, starving the bearings. Driven in normal conditions on the road the motors give good service. I’ve had two stove bolts, a ‘31 & ‘51 that I drove at highway speeds all day long, 55-65, which was wide open in the case of the '31 because it had 411 rear gears.
Yeah i have never had to use one at work, but i have seen them and do know what they are for, haha...
I imagine the copper strap gaive it enough tension to open them stationary but not enough when running. Being a tenderfoot he wouldn;t know there should be a steel spring too. But he will never forget it now.
If it was easy ,everybody could do it, this stuff builds character, patience,and makes you a better hot rodder.
How much faster do you expect that babbit bearing'd 216 to go? 50 mph is cruising speed for it. While in good tune it'll push the car to 75 or 80 (briefly), it's not going to be comfortable doing that all day. It may just be tired enough that it's just not gonna wind up any faster. Or, I could have read the entire post and seen that you'd fixed the problem. Duh...
I would check inside the distributor very carefully.......the wire that leads from the breaker plate to the distributor and the wire from the points............I had a problem years ago that involved one of these two...can't remember which,.........but when the breaker plate rotated was rotated for spark advance it grounded the wire with similar results. The insulation is likely old and cracked, or missing, and is often overlooked because it sometime is blocked from view by other dist parts. Worth checking. Ray
How did the spring get set aside? 90% of all fuel problems are ignition related, and 90% of all ignition problems are fuel related. Hence a good troubleshooting flow chart followed along it steps will isolate the problem. Most of the old MOTORS manuals will have a trouble shooting guide as part of the introduction. Since most of us have now gotten used to the typical look up the code and start replacing parts, the old tried and true troubleshooting procedures have been tosed out with the defective MAP sensor. Finding one reading it and keeping it handy is a good idea for anyone going back to pre OBD days. As to the comment above, I had a similar problem, finally pulled the wire ad found some bad isulation allowing it to short out against the dizzy body. I fixed it by winding it with some fine silk thread, and a coating of thinned rubber cement. Another hady tool is a vacuum gauge, a simple way to learn alot about the conditio of your engine. Amazing tool check the scenarios here http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm
Actually the car goes down the highway pretty good now that the problem is fixed, as for the setting the points question, the brass strip did give it enough tension to set the points, the spring was a seperate piece and when i ordered the new points they came with the spring. I didnt replace the points the first time, the guy i bought the car off of did, so they were new when i looked at them which is why i didnt suspect them as the problem.
bullyb try reading the entire post , also try posting an intro. before posting on threads you haven't read entirely.
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