I’m looking for a little guidance with my bone stock ‘55 Crown Victoria. I was out stretching her legs today and she was running perfect. I was highway cruising for about 15 minutes and had just exited and stopped at a stop light. I shifted through first and as the revs were coming up in second and I was about to shift into 3rd, it was like someone threw a switch and stole 75% of all the engine’s power. The car still runs but acceleration is not happening. I limped it about 1 mile back to my storage place. It died in the parking lot. It did restart without much effort, but things are not right. The engine will idle and rev while in neutral but has no power under load -as in, I nearly have to floor it while letting the clutch out to keep it from stalling out. The car idles ok and the rpm will come up when not under load. If I let off, the car backfires. Seems like there is a slight miss on the p***enger bank. Plenty of gas in the tank. This car is very original with only 54,000 miles. 272 y block, three speed with overdrive, still 6 volt, original carb, original distributor still points, etc. Everything is the stock configuration on this car. I bough the car 3 years ago and when I first got it, I had the carb and fuel pump rebuilt, changed out the plug wires, and have had absolutely no trouble since. I’ve put a few hundred miles on it since then cruising with the family. It hasn’t been driven much this summer but I regularly start it. I’m by no means a mechanic, but I am mechanical. I’m just a little stumped on where to even start. The sudden and drastic change in the way the car is running while going down the road with no other problems has me perplexed. I checked for a loose plug wire or a loose distributor but nothing else seems obviously out of place. If this were your car, where would you start looking? I don’t really have friends or family that are into cars at all so I’m left asking you all for help. Thanks in advance! Pic of offending car below!
Sounds like a coil or condenser, more likely condenser. Beautiful car. What's the third character of the serial number which indicates the ***embly plant? My father worked at the Atlanta plant when they were building them. I'm working on a '55 (Fairlane Town Sedan 4 door) that my parents bought new and I learned to drive on.
Could very well be the distributor vacuum can has gone bad. If you don't know, it has a simple rubber plate or bellows in it. If it get a hole in it it's shot and you will have no advance. It can be removed pretty easily to check it.
To add to y’sguy, he’s referring to the Loadomatic distributor. If you haven’t been around one go look them up. All vacuum, no weights. If that can fails it’s a locked in distributor with whatever your initial is (stock is around 6*) and probably a big vacuum leak. That combination will really kill any kind of power. Not saying it isn’t the coil or condenser, a real weak spark will do it too. Pop off the distributor cap, rig a hose to the can. They relied on a very weak vacuum signal from the Holley carb (2 or 4 barrel). You can move them by ****ing on them easily. You’ll see the plate move with the cap off. Pretty car, I’ve always been partial to the Ford colors in those years and especially the two tones.
Most of us move to 57- 64 ignitions and late carbs. I did it within a month of buying my 56. Small base carbs were a lot cheaper then and a 52-54 Cadillac WCFB even had a rear fuel line that fit the old Holley 4000 perfectly.
Thanks y’sguy, but if you wouldn’t have brought it up it wouldn’t have occurred to me. I haven’t run a loadomatic in years. But Cowboy, get it running first. Much easier to find the current problem than go thru some change over and discover that wasn’t it. If it’s starting and idling it’s probably a tuning problem, not major mechanical like a jumped timing gear, etc.
Had a similar issue on my Rambler. While driving it would go through second , third, and then die. After a minute it would fire up then same. The vacuum line from the transmission to the carb had rubbed on the firewall and made a small hole in the line. Switched it out and problem solved.
Sorry for not updating this. Problem turned out to be a busted rotor clip, allowing the rotor to bounce around. I love inexpensive and easy fixes! I really appreciate everyone offering their guidance with this. That’s why I love the HAMB!
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