The Ford Barn

cabrioletgalaxie · 03-25-2020, 09:20 PM

Did you ever "know" that you had an electrical problem and it turned out to be a fuel problem?? Well, that's what happened to me. Because we had put new points and condenser in the distributor we thought we hadn't set it up properly since it didn't run well.
Just prior to that I had found there was crud in the sed bowl that had gotten into the new fuel pump causing it to fail. After trying to clean it and finding the 2 valves in the pump were not the type that could be changed I bought a new fuel pump, installed it and it worked fine but the engine was hard to start requiring 3/4 choke and my foot into the accelerator to keep it running, roughly.
So I thought the distributor was the issue, hence my plea for a way to set up my distributor.
But before I got into that I decided to go the next step with my fuel system and take off the carb, which I had rebuilt just 6 months ago. My thought was that some of the crud in the fuel could have made its way into the carb.
Sure enough with it on the bench I took out the rubber tipped shut off valve just in from the fuel inlet and found a small sliver of metal which I think prevented the needle from seating and keeping too much gas flowing into the carb. By the way when I had initially purchased the car over a year ago I found the gas tank to be full of rust which is why I not only replaced the fuel pump and put rebuild kit into the carb I actually replaced the gas tank thinking I would avoid any fuel issues. But I think the crud I had in the fuel system was actually from the new tank. So I now have an ugly inline fuel filter which I can monitor and replace when needed.
Once the carb was reinstalled the engine fired and ran smoothly.
So for now I will use it as is and as one of you mentioned if I am not satisfied I can just tweak the distributor timing a bit and see if I can improve it.
In the meantime I am looking for a timing fixture but am shocked to find prices ranging from $495. to $800. Scary.
Thank you all for your comments and thank you Mart. I had watched your video initially about making a TDC pointer. Something I may do in the future.

03-25-2020, 09:20 PM	#16
cabrioletgalaxie Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Maine Posts: 377	Re: Timing procedure on 59AB? Did you ever "know" that you had an electrical problem and it turned out to be a fuel problem?? Well, that's what happened to me. Because we had put new points and condenser in the distributor we thought we hadn't set it up properly since it didn't run well. Just prior to that I had found there was crud in the sed bowl that had gotten into the new fuel pump causing it to fail. After trying to clean it and finding the 2 valves in the pump were not the type that could be changed I bought a new fuel pump, installed it and it worked fine but the engine was hard to start requiring 3/4 choke and my foot into the accelerator to keep it running, roughly. So I thought the distributor was the issue, hence my plea for a way to set up my distributor. But before I got into that I decided to go the next step with my fuel system and take off the carb, which I had rebuilt just 6 months ago. My thought was that some of the crud in the fuel could have made its way into the carb. Sure enough with it on the bench I took out the rubber tipped shut off valve just in from the fuel inlet and found a small sliver of metal which I think prevented the needle from seating and keeping too much gas flowing into the carb. By the way when I had initially purchased the car over a year ago I found the gas tank to be full of rust which is why I not only replaced the fuel pump and put rebuild kit into the carb I actually replaced the gas tank thinking I would avoid any fuel issues. But I think the crud I had in the fuel system was actually from the new tank. So I now have an ugly inline fuel filter which I can monitor and replace when needed. Once the carb was reinstalled the engine fired and ran smoothly. So for now I will use it as is and as one of you mentioned if I am not satisfied I can just tweak the distributor timing a bit and see if I can improve it. In the meantime I am looking for a timing fixture but am shocked to find prices ranging from $495. to $800. Scary. Thank you all for your comments and thank you Mart. I had watched your video initially about making a TDC pointer. Something I may do in the future.