Technical How is this possible?

it is possible that the inertia ring has slipped on the harmonic damper

 

How would that keep a timing light from strobing?

 

Ohm meter time... Connect one lead to the br*** (or aluminum) contact inside the cap, the other to a lead from the tower. Try a few, or all of 'em. This will conclude the cap doubt...

 

All kinds of weirder **** happens in Ford distributors!

 

Didn't OP cover that on post #1 or did I add into what's said?

 

I'd be lazy,just time it off the cyl 180 degrees from #1[ on a ford who knows which one that is,lol]-time a chevy off of # 6 sometimes if its easier to reach-timing marks the same

 

P.S.unless the miss is real bad ,just turn the radio up

 

Convert to electronic ignition. Bones

 

did i read something wrong? what thread is this?

 

If you have no spark at the distributor cap terminal one, that eliminates anything beyond that. I doubt you would get multiple bad caps. It has to be something not allowing the points to function properly at the number one position. If you have a dwell meter, check point dwell to see if it's steady or if it varies. It should be 30 degrees and steady. If you have a tachometer in the vehicle disconnect that and try it.

 

Rotate the distributor a full 1/8 turn.
Bounce the plug wires back one terminal.
Did the problem stay on that same terminal or did the problem stay with that cylinder?

If the problem moved with the same terminal you need a distributor.
You could go further into it and find out why or not. My guess would be a bad points cam or worn bushing.

 

It's also number 6 on a Ford 460 but that won't solve the no spark on number one. I know the old story is that Ford used the 8 cylinder to make sure they had 6 working but all 8 should fire.

 

Not trying to pimp a part, but I do have a good 429 points distributor gathering dust on a shelf from a past build.

 

It could be as a previous poster mentioned,the lobe for #1 cyl has taken French leave.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

that explains a lot on my V-10 Ford pick-up-it's usually running on about 8 lol

 

I dont know if you are running an Autolite distributor, but here is something about them you may or may not have noticed. The plate that the points are on, moves in an arc that is not concentric with the points cam. The end result is, the dwell changes when the vacuum advance pulls on the points plate. I have one in a 428 here that drops from 45 degrees to 30. If your points are set just a little too tight, it will cause havoc when the vacuum advance kicks in. Im sure that is not your problem here, but it is something you might want to be aware of.

 

Check the points gap when it should fire on #1. Is it what it should be? How does it compare to one of the others? Try removing the plug wire from the distributor cap and replace it with a screwdriver, hold on to the shank and have someone crank it over a few times to see if you get a shock. This would determine if the plug wire was bad.

 

If the pivot on the breaker plate is worn the dwell will change as it moves with the vacuum advance. It could be bad enough to cause a cylinder to misfire. A worn distributor bushing could cause a similar problem. I like the idea of putting the distributor in 180* out and seeing if the missing cylinder becomes #6 instead of # 1.

I've seen a breaker plate so worn that the tach (old, old tach) wouldn't read properly.

I've seen bad breaker plates cause trouble. I've seen worn dist. bushings cause trouble, and I've seen bent distributor shafts (they don't bend by themselves) cause misfires. It's certainly possible that one lobe on the rubbing block cam is more worn than the others. A very close examination of all parts of the distributor is in order. It shouldn't be hard to figure out, it just needs a comprehensive look at all the moving parts.

 

I'm going to have to agree with the issue being inside the distributor and most likely the plate that the points ride on or it's bushing.
The " I changed this part and nothing changed so I changed it again and it still didn't fix it" pretty well proves that the problem wasn't the part you change.
That that model of Ford distributor can get pretty sloppy and still run but maybe not well is well known and common for those of us who have been around them a lot. .

 

What this guy said easiest way to find out if it’s the distributor

I can’t see it being multiple wires and caps, say what you want about Chinese junk, but you have tried a few with the same results,
Do this and then get a new distributor or get yours repaired.

 

Has it been established if this is a point distributor? From all the checking that's been done I suspect the problem is in the primary side.

 

I had a strange miss in a SBC years ago. Just one cylinder at different load conditions. It was the wire to the condenser. It stuck up a little and at certain advances it would short out the ignition lead to a screw on the rotor. It made it like the points never opened for one cylinder at the right advance.

 

^^^^^ what he said ^^^^

 

Time for electronic ignition


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I had this issue on a electronic distributor but never on a points distributor so I am curious on what it could be.

 

Did you read the very first sentence in this thread?

 

Distributor cam wear? Check and see if the points actually open when it's on number one.

 

So to took your OHM Meter and checked the cap by itself, and it shows open? And its the same on all 3 caps? That is weird man.

I got the guess that all 3 caps are he same run and they had a problem with that run.
It can be repaired, a little backyard-ish but it could be repaired. Just drill a hole through it and insert a br*** pin/dowel.

Never the less that is wierd man.

OH just occurred to me if the cap checks out good you should look at the point cam, check the point gap @ number one, if they are not breaking that would make that cylinder not fire. The reason I mention it is that I had a point distributor the other week that was ****tering. One of those if no one can fix it, it ends up in my driveway sort of things. I was looking at it and it didn't look right kind of things so I checked in on all lobes and they varied a bunch in gap some lobes as much as .002 tighter and one lobe almost not breaking at all. I had an old distributer on my shelf that I knew was good and that cured it.

Note: I still have my good distributer on the shelf, I never let anyone have my spare unless it is to get them home.

 

These 2 lines do need some clarifying "Checked continuity inside to outside of the cap. No fire coming out of the cap." Line 1 doesn't exactly state the result of the test. Line 2 just say's no spark ("fire") which the multimeter isn't the proper tool for.

 

Yep,
Not that it doesn't ever happen this way- but in the majority of these type of obscure problems that seemingly place the blame on mysticism and witchcraft it's ultimately the fault of methods of testing. Stepping around the established hierarchy of troubleshooting results in lots of tail chasing.

The art of troubleshooting isn't really an art, it's simple logic. Generally the first sign or notice of trouble is that something is not doing what it's supposed to be doing and we notice it. Boom, let's just call that "lack of desired and designed output." That's what we notice. Boom boom , the designed and desired output is completely dependent upon the component having the required and designed input to deliver the output. It's extremely simple