Found On Road Dead
 

Wife and I coming home from a nice Sunday lunch in the woodie, get to a rise in the road about 2 miles from home. Engine quits like I killed the ignition switch. I quickly shifted into neutral hoping to clear the rise so I could pull into Segault's triangle at the cuttoff to Obstruction Pass. As we slowed down with some hill still ahead I started pulling the rise with the starter motor for propulsion. We crested the slight rise and dropped into the roadside triangle across from my buddy Tim Segault's place. Tim was in his barcalounger but came out to help us. If you have read 'hunting/strumbling/missing, you will know of my distributor journey. New fuel tank, two fuel pumps(elec on a switch), two filters, 1/2 tank or ethanol free gas. 8 new autolite 216s yesterday. Fat blue spark from coil wire. No spark at any plug wire. Pull rotor, looks perfect. Snap it all back together, can't see anything down behind those belts. Still no spark at plugs. Tim tows us home behind his beat up '82 chev 6.2 diesel 4x4 dually, bed covered with logging equipment. We had to unhook his trailer and I had to move his excavator so we could back out of his place. When we reach my steep gravel road we need a head of speed for momentum, but a neighbor is loafing up the hill looking back at what we are doing,. Well we got home and in the morning before work I will get into that horrible front mounted distributor and see what is up. I hate the location and I cannot wait to get that new 8ba built and installed to end this misery. I know, I know that dual point distributor is a masterpiece of ford engineering, but give me a regular old distributor when I have trouble on the road. What do I look for at dawn's early light? And sorry for the rant, you guys know I DO love these vehicles.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

I'm sure I'll ruffle some feathers but you could always go with an electronic distributor. Don't know if your 6 or 12 volt but they are available in both voltages. Another option is a Pertronix electronic conversion. My buddy has been running a Pertronix in the 59ab in his AV8 for years with no issues.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Your neighbor Tim is an admirable man in todays world. Sorry that happened to you. Whenever I drive the '32 I have my own personal rules.
1. The car doesn't leave my sight. (I wouldn't go to WalMart and go shopping, but I will go to breakfast and sit where I can keep an eye on it.
2. I don't go anywhere that requires a speed higher than 35 MPH. (The front end is sloppy and it can be scary to drive. A rebuild is planned.)
3. Someone has to be home to come get me with the truck and car trailer in case I beak down. (Yes, it has happened more than once.)
Good luck finding your Gremlin, I feel your fustration and I'm sure many other Barners have had the same experience.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

I may have already ruffled a few..... Really I just want my points (one set) up where i can stick my nose in them. OH, and the 255 cubes will be nice.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

simple troubleshooting; you have fat blue spark at coil. But nothing at plugs. So....problem is rotor shorted. if cap had issues it'd be misfiring on some cylinders. Nothing wrong with the points

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

GB, I agree with Brian,
I had mine stumble a few times and die. Towed home and upon investigation found that the rotor had shorted. The spark was going straight through the top into the shaft. ( crab distributor) I couldnt see the problem until I got under bright light .I now carry a quality spare rotor.
Dave

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

I also would be looking at the rotor. It might fire up again and idle now it's cold.

The heavy ignition loads during the uphill grade will test the ht side of the ignition. If the rotor is the weak link in the chain, that will fail.

I had a rotor fail and it would be ok at the first part of the journey then fail when hot and pulling a heavy HT load (pulling up a hill or accelerating).

A simple swap fixed it. You could see damage on the rotor.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Gary, all's well that ends well! You and your wife got home safe and sound, notwithstanding the damper on a nice Sunday lunch!! Thank God for neighbors, or in my case AAA!

Betting you'll find the problem and fix it pronto today!!

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Ya we know you love it. When all is right and you're singing along, it's much better than driving any new car, period.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

I had my truck with the front mounted distributor die mysteriously a couple of times. I finally figured it out. I had serviced the fan hub and one drop of oil would fall on the distributor run in thru the timing set screw and short the points to ground. The point sets that I used had a slightly longer spring and when installed the clearance to the distributor housing was measured in thousandths of an inch. Little things can sometimes make a big difference. Granted front mounted distributors can be a pain to work on but once I did everything right it works fine.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

shorted rotor for sure. helmet dizzy take off the rotor and put two layers of shrink tape-one at a time and this cures the problem--ask me how I know this

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Gary, That often happens when you run a hotter coil then the original. Electricity will always go to the "easiest" ground and sometimes it is the shaft in the center of the rotor. Sometimes it is just a rotor that doesn't have enough plastic in a critical spot. Good luck, I know that is a hard place to get to with those wide fenders. Since this isn't an old greasy mess that hasn't been aprat forever it shouldn't be as bad as you think.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

THANKS!!! Ok, still on my second cup of coffee, will report back.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

YAY! Pulled down a cardboard box labeled 59ab ignition and there were 3 distributors and assorted caps and rotors for crabs. Picked out a newish looking rotor, installed it from under the car and voila! This may well have been the stumbling/hunting /missing thing I have been chasing for weeks. I looked at the distributor I replaced last week and the rotor was missing, leading me to suspect I moved the old rotor over to the 'new' distributor. I will road test after lunch as I have someone coming to the shop this morning. Thanks!

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Gary, that second cup of coffee put you over the top on the fix....that and the spare rotor!:D

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

One good thing about all the engines we are given or buy cheap that end up to be horribly cracked is that they give up lots of spare parts. And the parts, while some of them are aftermarket, are old USA made stuff. I have a crab cap that is red and has a reverse firing order on it. Looks new, probably marine and I think it should work on a normal engine. I like the color. Heading out now on the test drive. I can't thank you all enough for the quick replies that fired up the woodie!

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Road test great. Still need to go to town and hit the long grades on the way home, but all systems GO.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Glad you got 'er figured. Now instead of Found On Road Dead you can be First On Race Day.

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

In my ford 33/34 book it shows how to make a high tension parts checker using a model T coil, I use mine on every dist I do.
Lawrie

Re: Found On Road Dead
 

Lawrie, I'd like to know more about this. Don't have a 33/34 parts book, but am going to see what I can find online. Thanks for the idea!!:)