Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

Well no spark comes out of the coil tower, put a meter on it and it’s toast, tested the regulator and it’s good. Less than an oil change worth of miles on it. Gonna get one from Napa with a good warranty and call it fixed hopefully

 

Got the new coil put in yesterday, it’s slightly bigger so I need to mess with the mounting bracket/clamp. Find some dielectric grease to slap on there and give it a try. Hopefully tomorrow morning we get a break from all this rain and I can give it a try! Dawns on me that a crapping out coil could be the answer to my hard cold starts, it certainly wasn’t helping.

a coil picture isn’t exciting so here’s @Austin kays new flames.

 

Car fired right up after a few gas pumps and went for a 5-10 minute cruise around the neighborhood. As it ran it kept feeling better and better.

Fast forward to this afternoon getting ready to get the kids from school and I’m literally back at square one. Won’t start. The coil did test as bad so I know it did need replaced. But yeah. No real gain. Been close to 5 years of fighting gremlins on this car. I’m pretty dang over it if I’m being honest.

 

Do you have another distributor to try in it? Have you bypassed the ignition switch and hot wired it? Possibly the ballast resistor as well, you could eliminate it as a test.

 

Tested the ballast and it’s fine, cleaned set the points oiled the block etc. this morning I’m
Going to test the condenser and see if the ignition switch has lose wires.

I do have another distributor but it’s an hei so I’d have to change a little more than I’d like but it’s probably less effort than shoving this thing off a cliff which feels like the other option.

I think a large part of the frustration is it working for a drive and then it decides naw, I’m done.

 

Best I can tell capacitor is shot. Once I save up enough give a damns I’ll swap one out.

 

It us usually the smallest thing that messes up everything.

 

I can't tell you how many condensers I've had go bad in the last few years. Literally left me and my youngest stranded in the Model A last week.

 

I've gone with NOS GM points off eBay and Bubba's recommended RR175 condenser from NAPA with no grief; not like FIL's experience with Mac's condenser on his '37.

 

@flatout51 ive heard that a bunch, I put an ohm meter on it and it was all over the place. Erratic up and down 120+ then right to -10 I’m gonna say it’s junk

 

@RICH B rr175sb ? That was my intended replacement so I guess I was on the right track!

 

Other than a bit of carbon in the cap everything looks like it should under there. Anyone got a good trick for getting the carbon off those points in the cap?

high grit sand paper?

 

I usually use emery cloth but I'm not sure if it would clean that up.

 

Yeah, guess we’ll see. Need to figure out what series a Mallory dual point is so I can find the correct replacement cap if I can’t get it cleaned up.

can’t seem to find an application chart on new caps past “fits series 50 distributors”I guess when I go out to the garage tonight I’ll write down the numbers.

Last night I did some more trouble shooting/ snooping. Figured I’d run down the laundry list of stuff you can check before I went to buy parts. Seems I’ve got a short between the coil and the points, but I think I have an idea of where to look.

Funny how you can be right there checking every little thing, find nothing, and then go in for the night and immediately think “oh I bet on that back side….”

 

Isn't that the truth.

I was working on my yard tractor the other night, until about 1 AM, couldn't figure out the issue. Got up in the morning and the issue was clearly obvious. Should have just gone to bed earlier the night before.

 

Doesn’t help that my current option are a few minutes late at night when I’m to tired to care that much, and doing it with a 4 year old helper lol. Takes two weeks totaled up to spend an hour on the car lol.

I think once summer is in full effect I’ll have a better schedule established

 

Similar issue here, 5-month-old doesn't give me much time to work in the garage.

 

Well new Capacitor, cleaned the points, oiled the pads, cleaned the cap. Tested every intersection of wire from the coil through the ballast to the dist and it all checked out. Put the battery in the charger the night before.

primed the carb with the electric pump and….

nothing.

I have fuel, I have a starter that will spin the motor to 80 lbs of oil pressure, I have juice to anything I can think to check.

zero spark that I can hear.

I pulled the battery and covered the car in blankets. I’ve been beaten.

I’ve been chasing shit on this car so non stop for the last five years that I havnt put an entire take of gas threw it between shit braking more than one time in that span.

it’s left town two three times in five years and I’ve currently lost track of how long I’ve been chasing my tail on this current situation.

I don’t fucking get it. But I’m done. It can be a shelf I guess.

 

Oh man, that sucks big time. I feel the same way with the '50's new motor.....4 years and still chasing bugs. Fine around town, try to leave town and something always happens. Good time to walk away for a while before you throw a hammer through the windshield (maybe that was more directed at me than you LOL). No doubt it's going to be something small and stupid that you can't believe you missed. A break away from it and fresh eyes later and you'll catch it....I'm confident.

 

I know it’s got to be something little I’m overlooking, or that I checked wrong but I’m spent for now

 

Tried a few more things. Still no spark.

next chance I get I’m going to swap/ test the coil to distributor cap wire. It’s the only thing I havnt tested or replaced.

if that fails I guess I could check the ballast again. I’ve been going through my points gap, and everything else I already did or checked wondering if I didn’t catch something or get something right.

Pretty disheartening how much faith I’ve lost in this thing. I used to jump in and as long as it had gas I’d drive it to wherever knowing if would get me back. With this current situation if it had failed in Oklahoma it would have been thousands in a tow bill. Even if/when I get this thing to run again it’s going to be a long while before I trust it for further than I can walk home.

 

I had missed this thread, somehow. Keep up the good work.

 

Guess I never updated this, come home a couple weeks ago to an entire dump truck of mulch sitting in my driveway in front of the door for the 46! So I e been shoveling, hauling and giving away mulch like it’s a full time gig since then.

I have been running some ideas past some friends trouble shooting but summers a busy time and the doors blocked so I havnt put any time into it yet.

Just because every thread needs photos my pops is selling his built Lincoln if anyones looking to cruise in style

https://opposingcylinders.com/vehicle-detail/6672599bd8e9082f2feed94d

 

@Tim I really like the Lincoln!

 

@Kelly Burns fly in and cruise it home he’s driven that thing ten hours one way stopping only for gas and burgers. It’s got 3:00 rear gears so it’s got long legs and enough torque to pull a house down lol

 

@Tim Tempting! But I'm holding out for a '46-'48 Ford!

 

If he can't figure out his 46, it might be real cheap

 

Gonna be honest I’ve marked this one as a keeper but if I ever get rid of it I’ll most likely do it in a fit of rage and it’ll involve a cliff lol

 

Been there. Cars are fun!

 

@Tim if it gets to that point, I'll drive it to the cliff for you, as far as you would know!