Fed Up

[bambamshere]

So I have a 1956 Fargo 1 ton. I have had for going on 3 years now. I have tried my best to get this truck going. Well today like every Sunday. I tried to take it out for a ride. But for some reason the truck just refuses to get going. I work on it during the week and for most part worked fine. 

 

So today I started the truck and got everything good and going. I started driving and the Carburetor started popping did that last week. Then on way home as soon as it went into 3rd gear. It had no power. Buddy of mine said it is the timing so I timed it yet again and saw it was a few degrees out. I bought a new timing light. It is at  +2 degrees ( if it needs to be different please tell me). I'm not sure what to do next. 

 

Help 

 

The carb was rebuilt 2 years ago. I had the front of the truck taken apart this year but I marked everything to make sure it was put back together right. I actually made sure and triple checked before putting it back together. 

[Dodgeed]

I'm not an expert, but, your problem sounds like one I had awhile ago; found out I'd mixed up a couple of the plug wires when I put it back together. Changed 'em back to where they belonged, and all was well. I could not believe I'd done that, since I thought I was being careful when I put 'em back together. Guess not. ?

[squirebill]

Agreed.  #1 wire may be correct and timed perfectly but two or more other wires may be out of sequence.  My father in law once had the wires in the right sequence but in the wrong direction.  He had the sequence correct going counter-clockwise but the rotor went clockwise.  Car ran but only with idle set up to a high rpm. Sequence is 1,5,3,6,2,4, and rotor goes in clockwise direction.  Regards.

 

Title of your post "Fed Up" reminded me of this same father in law....he used to say, "Before I was married I was always hungry, ...now I'm fed up."

Edited August 12, 2019 by squirebill
Additional information

[Charlie Stephenson]

Gasoline - petrol  ??? Charlie Stephenson

[falconvan]

I had a similar issue on a Rambler; the wire that went from the coil to the points was brittle and cracked and was shorting out to the distributor body where it went through the hole. Replaced wire from points to coil along with a new rubber grommet.

[Los_Control]

Have you pulled the distributor  out, check the vacuum advance is working, also is a short wire in there that can lose it's cloth insulation, ground out on you.

 

I like falco's idea, I would just go a bit further and check the dist at same time.

[Jeff Balazs]

Can't say about the timing and firing order. Either you have it correct or not.

One thing I can tell you is that these modern fuel formulations are crap. I drive my 52 B-3- C daily and I treat just about every tank full with 4 to 6oz. of MMO. If I don't I start having issues fairly quickly. As long as I remember to dose the fuel it runs just fine. That is all the proof I need.

Jeff

[HotRodTractor]

It sounds like you are having issues under load. Do you have good clean tank and lines? Are you getting a good supply of fuel to the carb under load?

[Plymouthy Adams]

change your condenser...….inspect your points for signs of over current ie bluing....I bet it runs like new money out of gear....

[kencombs]

Fedup?  That's the punch line to a joke:  What will they call the result of a UPS / Fedex merger?   Actually saw that on a T-shirt in the correct company colors last week!

 

As PA said, check the condenser first, coil to distributor primary wire second, coil to distributor cap third.  And remember, 99% of all carb problems are ignition.

[Plymouthy Adams]

5 minutes ago, kencombs said:

Fedup?  That's the punch line to a joke:  What will they call the result of a UPS / Fedex merger?   Actually saw that on a T-shirt in the correct company colors last week!

 

As PA said, check the condenser first, coil to distributor primary wire second, coil to distributor cap third.  And remember, 99% of all carb problems are ignition.

I think UPSEX would be a catchier name.....

[bambamshere]

1 hour ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

change your condenser...….inspect your points for signs of over current ie bluing....I bet it runs like new money out of gear....

Got electronic ignition  sometimes I wonder if I should change it back

[bambamshere]

1 hour ago, HotRodTractor said:

It sounds like you are having issues under load. Do you have good clean tank and lines? Are you getting a good supply of fuel to the carb under load?

Tank was cleaned and tested this winter. Line a I need to look at. Would like to change them but.I can't find 5/16 line that is aluminum. Can find stainless and steel. But nothing else

[DJ194950]

Well one place carries what you want but it is in US.

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G2516/

 

DJ

[NiftyFifty]

43 minutes ago, bambamshere said:

Got electronic ignition  sometimes I wonder if I should change it back

 

Do you have the Langdon distributor or the Frankenstein slant 6 one?  My Langdon has be fantastic so far, and easier to get parts up here for it, then a new points and condenser, but typically electronic ignition works or it doesn’t, not much intermittent usually.  

 

Is your carb bowl always full?

[Plymouthy Adams]

now that you have further defined your ignition system to that of electronic...lets go one step further and call the name of that set up.  There are some factors regarding set up on a couple of these that will cause snorting wheezing popping and blowing of the mind...

[bambamshere]

It is a pertronix ignitor. 

[maok]

Pertronix has tests on their website you can do to see if the module is faulty or not. A simple test is to hook up a dwell meter on the coil, if you have a rock steady needle at about 38 degrees then the module is working fine.

 

 

Have you checked the colour of your spark plugs? This can often lead you to your problem.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

as Moak says...go to the pertronix site and follow their trouble shooter....you describing low voltage condition or improper coil volt/current range....you must follow their trouble shooter....

[plymouthcranbrook]

Make sure that all the plug wires are fully inserted into the cap. If not spark could not make the jump all the time.  I also discovered that when timing the engine unlike almost every other engine I ever did do not disconnect the vacuum advance. i did that because I always have on points ignition and had a similar problem to yours. I reread the manual and discovered no mention of removing the vacuum line. I redid the timing and the problem went away.  Runs great at all speeds and loads. Small things are important.

[Radarsonwheels]

On 8/13/2019 at 10:35 PM, plymouthcranbrook said:

Make sure that all the plug wires are fully inserted into the cap. If not spark could not make the jump all the time.  I also discovered that when timing the engine unlike almost every other engine I ever did do not disconnect the vacuum advance. i did that because I always have on points ignition and had a similar problem to yours. I reread the manual and discovered no mention of removing the vacuum line. I redid the timing and the problem went away.  Runs great at all speeds and loads. Small things are important.

Even better than just not unhooking it would be to see if it wanders at idle. Check the timing at idle with and without vacuum and if you have a little mity-vac pistol grip hand pump bleeder thing you can hook that up and take a piece of paper and plot the vac.advance curve as you add more vacuum to the line.

 

 I had one that was right on the edge of advancing at 750ish rpm- when the idle dropped a little the vacuum would drop a little and then the timing would drop a little and not allow the idle to recover then it would blubber and want to die. 

[bambamshere]

I am looking at the truck right now and am wondering what is a good rpm setting on on of these Flatheads. Got it set at 700 right now but seems a bit high. Earlier this year it was at 500 and barely ran at idle. 

 

About the timing not sure if this was the problem or not. But the ground wire going from the petronix ignitor to the coil was loose and let go with a lite touch. Haven't started it up yet as it was pretty late when I found this. So will start and look at timing today. 

 

I know what the book says about what to time motor at. But this has some miles on it and was last rebuilt in 1974. What do you all think of timing now to be set at. It is set at about +2 degrees right now and was popping through carb 

Edited August 16, 2019 by bambamshere

[Jeff Balazs]

I have the Pertronix module and matching 6V coil in my truck. Try setting idle to around 600 rpm and use a vacuum gauge to set timing at the highest reading you can get. Then make very small timing adjustments until you get it to run the best.

I probably don't need to tell you but loose or improperly sized wiring can damage these modules. I highly recommend clean terminals and the use of rattle proof type lock washers on the ignition system.

Hth, Jeff

Oh btw I have over 20K trouble free miles on my truck...so I know this ignition system is good if it is installed properly.

[NiftyFifty]

On 8/12/2019 at 3:02 PM, bambamshere said:

Tank was cleaned and tested this winter. Line a I need to look at. Would like to change them but.I can't find 5/16 line that is aluminum. Can find stainless and steel. But nothing else

 

Why do you want aluminum line?? Fuel lines should be steel, just head to CTire or Piston Ring and you can get a roll for $30-40.  Even copper is acceptable in low pressure applications, but aluminum would be more for efi or just plain show if you wanted to polish the line. 

[bambamshere]

15 minutes ago, NiftyFifty said:

 

Why do you want aluminum line?? Fuel lines should be steel, just head to CTire or Piston Ring and you can get a roll for $30-40.  Even copper is acceptable in low pressure applications, but aluminum would be more for efi or just plain show if you wanted to polish the line. 

Easier to bend. That is why I want aluminum