'53 B-4TA-190 Fire Engine

[E37Bruco]

Oh and here's the photo you wanted haha

[Dodgeb4ya]

Brillman stuff is really good quality. No problem there I would think.

Anyway to check spark do like I said.

Pull coil lead out of distributore cap..

Anyway you can  firmly position the coil wire end 1/2" from any handy metal part on the top of the engine, head, coil base mount etc.

Make sure the vehicle is in nuetral ...

Turn the key on..

Have someone stomp on the starter and crank it over while you watch for a 1/2"  strong snapping blue spark.

If you see this happen the distributor and coil are doing their job.

I never have help so I just reach down to the starter lever and operate it with my hand and watch for that spark.

Bummer this problem judt came up on your big show day!?

 

 

[Dodgeb4ya]

No water in the gas?

Just throwing that out there.

Had a job years ago withnester contamination.

Can cause your same problems.

I think it's going to be some silly little issue.

[E37Bruco]

i went back through this thread some and i cant find anything on fuel additives. What do you guys add to your tanks? I assumed since this is ethanol and lead-free it needs some top end lubricant. Im using Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant in each tank currently.

[Dodgeb4ya]

Your engine has Silicon-Chromium Steel  valves and valve seats. Exhaust valves are sodium filled..exhaust seats are stellite faced too.

Plus the block is "Nickel-Chrome."

No need for valve seat or valve additives.

 

[Dodgeb4ya]

Great photo's BTW!?

[E37Bruco]

[E37Bruco]

I'm getting weak spark from the lead wire. This coil is already really warm just from a few cranks.

 

1.7 ohms on the primary, no reading at all on secondary.

[Dodgeb4ya]

Typical good 6V coil tesistance readings are

***prmary 1.0-1.5 ohms

*** secondary 5000- 8000 ohms.

You have no reading on the high voltage side secondary coil...

Double check it..

If still the same open circuit....Bad coil I'd say

[E37Bruco]

I'll double check it next week when I go back. I'm also starting to get a decent drip from my gearbox since I topped it off. How hard is swapping the pitman arm seal out?

[Dodgeb4ya]

The double roller Ross steerin box with the sector shaft coming out the side with the pitman arm as shown would not be too hard as long as you have a good and big pitman arm puller.

For and aft type steering linkage.

The other steering box is a gemmer style with the pitmam arm hanging hanging at the botton of the angled down sector shaft .

A messy job on that style.

Shown is the Ross easier style to replace the box seal.

 

[E37Bruco]

Ya.....I have the gemmer I guess haha the pitman arm is on the bottom

[Dodgeb4ya]

Well that's kinda a bummer...oh well another bruco bring er back challenge.

[E37Bruco]

Are the steps still remove the bolt and pull the pitman arm, remove the seal, press in the new seal, torque down pitman arm?

[Dodgeb4ya]

Yes remove the big nut and washer...mark position of pitman arm to sector shaft...use a large  pitman arm puller or suitable puller to remove the pitman arm and steering shaft link from steering gear.

Carefully remove the old seal...don't damage the sealing surfaces.

Bad part is the gear oil will ooze out making it messy.

Carefully install a new seal.

Re-assemble arm and link shaft to steering gear.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Dodgeb4ya

[E37Bruco]

Any suggestions on stores to ask for replacements? I'll try napa and truck shops.

 

Nvm found it is national seal 6597S.

Edited July 18, 2023 by E37Bruco

[E37Bruco]

So...

 

-new coil on

-Verified spark to distributor 

-Verified points gap is .020

-No distributor shaft play

-Checked ohms on all spark plugs they're good

-weights and springs look good

-plugs aren't fowled

 

 

pulled the plate in the distributor and saw a bump on the fixed side of the points. Sanded it, regapped, fired up great. Shut it down so I can go move everything and fix the park job. Wouldnt fire back up. Bad points maybe? 

 

 

[Lingle]

could be, cant recall if you replaced the condenser but I had a boat motor that would fire up and run, but on shut down the heat soak would make the condenser not want to work again until cooled back off.  points are really just breaking a circuit so cleaned up dont typically fail but depending on how much they are and how hard to get, Id throw in new point and condenser.

[E37Bruco]

I ordered new points and condenser just the test both 

 

[Jerry Roberts]

48 minutes ago, E37Bruco said:

I ordered new points and condenser just the test both 

 

A deposit on one side of the points indicates the wrong value of condenser .  A failed condenser and your vehicle won't start . 

[E37Bruco]

I ordered the condenser based off Brillmans website saying it matched my distributor. ??‍♂️

[E37Bruco]

Completely off topic but this was just shared in a fire page. It's in Vermont 

[E37Bruco]

Swapped out the condenser and now she's running good again. Stupid little parts lol

 

Now I can get back to working on the other things

[Dodgeb4ya]

That's great!

I would buy extra "Good" ignition parts just to have.

Where you find them these days is a challenge though as you now know.

I prefer clean looking ,in original packaging, big name NOS parts.

Factory Autolite, Sorensen etc ignition parts.

[E37Bruco]

So there isn't any issue buying 70 year old NOS autolite parts? I'll try and stock up