The egine in my 50 has about five thousand miles or so on it after rebuild. It was idling well at the gas station and started to idle erratically then quit. Trying to restart it will try to crank and stumble, then quit. I thought it might be the carb, changed it, same result. It's getting spark because it tries to run. Its running a Crane Fireball 294 could it have pulled some studs? It still seems in time as #1 is still right on the compression stroke. I'm going to try new points, cap, rotor and condensor. I,m also going to pull the covers and check the rockers. It has always done well but the failure was sudden. Again, it was idling well then went erratic and quit. Thanks for any help.
Have you checked your fuel pump? What is the condition of your fuel tank? Is it old and rusty or has it been coated on the inside and some of the coating has come loose. That would clog the line at the tank.
O.K. It's got a hot battery, it's getting fuel and spark. I do not know if the gaps are correct. That's the next thing I'm going to check. I checked the rocker studs off the easy side by using a straight edge. None seem to have pulled up unless they all did. When I turn the distributor all the way left she stumbles like she wants to crank. Middle, nothing, all the way right nothing. It's acting like it's one tooth off. Does it sound like it's jumped a tooth?
Pull your fuel pump, stick your finger in the front cover where the pump came off. Feel the timing chain, take your finger out.Turn the engine by the fan or the crank shaft balancer bolt in the opposite direction of it's normal rotation a bit. Then feel the timing chain to see how loose it is. That should give you an indication of timing chain wear. Is your distributor vacuum advance touching the thermostat housing?
If you have gas and spark,my guess timing chain,binding dist brushing,or pin on cam sliped and broke off.
Its definitely a timing issue ..go through it oull yhe distributor check the gear if thats good check points check timing again .9 times out of 10 you think its fuel when its really timing ..check grounds ..check ignition switch Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
sure sounds like the timing chain jumped - how many miles on it and is it a double roller or link belt type?
I don't see a engine running fine at the gas pump beginning to run erratically then dying as a jumped timing chain. Sounds electrical. I understand it is getting spark. Is it strong spark off the coil? Is getting the correct voltage at the coil? Does she have vacuum advance? Is it stuck?
I had another dizzy and wire set, swapped it out, now no spark. I'm going to check all my switches and make sure all connections are clean. It is vac*** advance and it seems to work. I'm waiting on my ace mechanic to get home from school so he can man the starter ****on. I had cleaned my little coil nut and had it on the fender. Those F1 fenders pop like an oil can. It oil canned as I was cleaning the the coil wire and sent the nut into orbit. I found it though. Another thing is the timing mark. Due to the mix of parts and years the water pump outlet blocks the mark so it's useless. I have to time it by feel and by ear. Ahhh hot rods, don't you love them.
Were you putting fuel in at the station? Maybe you accidentally put diesel in it? That is pretty much how they act when you try to run a gas engine on that stuff.
No, I was getting a coke and it was just idling out front. I was paying for my stuff when I heard it act up and quit. I tried to check it out there, like do the points ect. No luck that night, thought it might be the carb. I played with it a little when I got it home, no luck. Life got in the way so it's sat about 4 years. It's acting just like it did that night. I'm going to try a new switch, new points new coil and new wires. I had some old stuff around the house, no luck I'm not sure if the stuff I changed out today is any better than whats on it. I'll need to eliminate things one by one for sure. Honestly I think it's electrical. My spark was yellow at the points. I got it better but it skips, I mean it does not fire every time the points open. It really needs a new harness. The reducer block to the points, the six volt to twelve conversion, thats where I think my main problems lie. I've got to eliminate that before I look into the engine. In 68 Ford used a reducer wire for the points ignition. I've been running a reducer block. It's just a mess I've got to straighten out. Thanks so much I'll keep you updated in what I find.
I had same problem with my 52pu.I removed the gas tank cleaned it out put fresh gas in and had no more problem.
Yes I have a ballast reducer. That's what I was calling a reducing block. I had put my tools up for the day after cleaning all the conections. I came back in for a moment and sat down and looked through the HAMB for second or two. I was thinking what a good day it was even though not much was accomplished. I thought about how much I enjoyed working on the truck and how fun it was to post on here. A day spent working on your hot rod is a good day. Then I went back out, got my tools out and had my wife bump the starter. I found #1 again and repositioned the distributor. Hit the ****on and it stumbled. I fooled around some more under the hood hit the ****on some more and she stumbled into a fast idle then into a mid rpm rev and quit. I tried again and it cranked and ran holding the throttle at 1500-2000 rpm for about a minute. She runs. She is in time. I thought it had been 4 years but it's been closer to 8 years. It's funny how time goes by. I still have a lot of fine tuning to do. Thanks all it's been fun today. p.s. I did find the timing mark pointer, its just difficult to see. You have to have the angle just right to see it.
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