What Next? 1973 Ford Contry Sedan

If anything it would be the driven gear on the rotor shaft; the drive gear's part of the camshaft casting. I had my '89 Bronco do that not long after I got it running, and I had to put a used one in. Perhaps you should ask on here if someone has a good condition used one you could buy or borrow just to see what happens.

 

OK,but I checked #1 cyl. on comp stroke again & rotor pointed to its mark @ #1 in the cap. Something really doesn't make sense. Summer of 2015 when the first muffler exploded,it seemed it was caused by the breaker plate flopping around and the points staying closed at the wrong time. This is the 5th distributor I've tried, and it seems that there is nothing wrong with it,and yet this BANG happens again,and now it won't even stay running. While cranking this latest time,it even spit back wet fuel through the carburetor.
It also seems to me that if the timing chain & gears were out of whack,why would the #1 cyl. & the rotor be in the same places they were before the muffler exploding/car quitting event?

 

Yeah, as I had mentioned in a previous post, if the chain jumped, it would stay jumped. But what if the exhaust backfire was caused by retarded timing, even though the dizzy 'lines up?'
Once, I had to deal with my niece's 1993 Taurus 3.8L shaking like crazy, and the timing marks not lining up. So I threw a timing light on, and sure enough, the timing was retarded. Or so I thought. After putting the dizzy all the way over to bring the timing mark back to the pointer, the exhaust manifolds began to glow red and overheat. So I turned the dizzy back to its starting position, and gave what happened a bit of thinking. I had to believe something was totally wacked for the engine to do what it did, so I went strainght back to basics. I pulled the #1 plug, got a wire coat hanger and cut a fair length out of it, verified #1 at TDC (compression or exhaust position didn't matter at that point, I wanted to verify piston position because I was going to check dizzy rotor position and #1 valve rocker positions). Soon as I had the piston all the way up around TDC, I looked at the damper, and found the outer ring had slipped about 60 or so degrees. Didn't expect that, but I was glad I ran into it. Went to a junkyard, got a replacement damper, installed it, reset timing to a gnat's @$$, it ran beautifully. So, If you want, do to your engine what I did to that Taurus' engine...go back to mechanical basics and verify everything. That 3.8L was only 17 years old to have the damper do that; yours is 43 years old. Just take it a step at a time and verify everything.

 

First if you have installed dizzy correctly the engine will not run at TDC you need to rotate clockwise a little for it to start if not it will do as you describe then do final adjustment of timing carb and idle . Remember your dizzy rotates counter clockwise and should fire before TDC . You need to start over and check yourself . I think you are changing dizzy when your problem is electrical but now have to get it to run in order to diagnose properly . Learn the basic knowledge of how it all works together . I believe you and Hobo are over thinking your problem . Like I've said these old systems are simple and the internet can confuse you . I've had many people come to me after spending time and money because of the internet diagnostics for something simple . Maybe find a local car club with some members to help you . I've installed distributors wrong before and had gas blowout of carb . Good luck and remember the basics of internal combustion engines and how it all works . Just trying to help and not pss people off .

 

What was the wire coathanger for? I did think of the damper slipping at one point in my meditations. So there's a key on the damper,and its keyway is on the crankshaft. So if the key broke (?) the damper could slip,and with further operation,it could slip some more,thus explaining my situation (maybe). But when I verified #1 cyl. on comp stroke & rotor on its mark,the pointer was 1/4" off zero (not quite at zero yet). (The pointer is on the engine,the marks are on the damper). They say pull it through to zero by hand,but I had to do it with a 15/16ths" deep socket & breaker bar,and there is surprisingly little room to reach in there,a PITA. Right now,I'm going with the flying saucer/alien zapping theory!

 

OK, no. not the entire damper slipping, but the annulus (the outer ring held on by the rubber sandwiched in) is what can slip. The coathanger is used to determine that the piston is up at TDC. You remove the spark plug and go thru that hole.

 

No flying saucers of flying spaghetti monsters either. 63Fowagon does have the point I'm trying to make: verify the absolute basics. The problem I have is not having my hands on the engine itself in order to check things systematically. But, if you did get the dizzy in correctly, and if the pointer was around 6-10* BTDC when the rotor pointed at the #1 tower on the cap, then it's not a slipped damper. But you are right, it is something irregular, and going through, reverifying the basics gets them out of the way before going after other possible causes. Oh, and remember one thing about setting points: the gap measurement is only to give you a starting point to setting proper dwell, which should be as close to 30* as you can get it, but no lower than 24. Then, of course, set timing.

 

Well,dwell was at 26,then 25 the next time I checked it. I might not really get a chance to diagnose further until Spring,the way the weather's been. Anyway,Happy New Year,you guys, and Happy Motoring!

 

To you also!

 

You will feel swell once you set the dwell!

 

"You know it's swell when it's Mattel!"

 

Well,anyway,the latest replacement distributor was stripped out at the body where the vacuum advance attaches,and the bottom of the shaft was hammered on at some point,and the gap was inconsistent,so I asked for a replacement,which the store is happy to do. I removed the shroud & fan which are a huge PITA so I could easily access the damper to turn it to zero. The rotor is on the mark,the distributor is out,& I can see a ding on the cam gear & I wonder how the rest of the teeth look. I suppose I can rotate & retime so as to get a look at them. I know the guy who put the first replacement distributor in didn't clean first so,FOD is likely (first replacement had obvious graunching on its teeth). Hopefully,tomorrow will be as predicted, 38 and not raining so I can do my "shade tree" bit.

 

You're warmer than we are here. down in the 20's and CAVU skies. Tomorrow, I'm going to work on Babe if it kills me. I also have to figure out how to remove the car cover that's frozen to the hood and roof.

 

Today I got the latest in a long line of distributors. (Originally 1969 Autolite before Motorcraft). It was another with this weird GIANT vacuum advance unit attached,which would be nice,but it would contact the top of the water pump casting thus not permitting timing where it needs to be. The defective unit which I was returning provided a regular size vacuum advance,so I swapped 'em out,right there in the store (they are used to me by now). So: as noted above,the timing marks were perfecto, the cam gear looked OK (mirror on a stick),and the new distributor dropped right in. The engine started right up,I warmed it,& got dwell @ 20,so I shrank the gap and got 26 & also 12B,600 rpm,and all that.
I have NO idea what the heck happened to explode the muffler,etc.,although replacing the unit seemed to solve the problem. I also discovered that the little tiny rubber cap had split on the "available" vacuum teat on the manifold,so,that was a leak. I recapped that. On the range,acceleration is not great,and I have to go get the muffler replaced at 0700,so after that,I'll test the vacuum advance unit & see also if its little arm came off the pin,replace the hose to it,recalibrate the accelerator pump arm,as I see from reading the manual that they are more concerned with pollution in 1973 than with blazing acceleration.
With the brakes,tires,shocks all done,it is a driving machine. I am happy at the moment.What else could possibly go wrong

 

The pin that engages the breaker plate may have an 'E' clip to hold it in place. Once everything is together, pull and cap the vacuum line to the advance can and plug it. Then start the engine and run it up to 2500 RPM; initial+mechanical advance should be between 12-18*. Then plug in the vacuum advance, run it back up to 2500 RPM; total advance should be 36-42*.