8BA, pops and backfires but no start.

F

FordCustom

Senior Member
I am thinking it's just out of time possibly, but not certain of it. New plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, points and condensor, etc. I don't have a fuel source hooked up at the moment, just dribbling a little gas down the carb with the choke set (new cable on that, and carb has been gone through as well) It cranked slow until the gas started going in, then the cranking speed doubled. I got a little smoke out of the breather, and a few smokey backfires out the muffler. It's close to running, but something's amiss. Could it just be out of time? I have the points set with a feeler gauge, etc.

Ahh the joys of bringing an engine back from the dead.....
 
I replaced the plug wires closely following a diagram starting at number one. I will look it over this evening. Thanks.
 
So the points should be pointing up and on the left side as a starting point. The vacuum advance diaphram is pointed up, and the line for it pointed off at an angle towards the carb. How about plug wires touching? They are wire core, so would they arc from one to the other if touching?
 
Read 19Fordy's post again. Even though the plug wires are all in the right location the timing can still be 180 degrees off. Put the engine up on #1TDC and the rotor should point to the #1 plug on the distributor and the dimple on the crank pulley should line up with the pointer. It's easy to check and if your timing is set correctly, then I would go back to the condensor.
 
I had that problem with a bad coil on my 52 Ford! Just another place to look after the other checks. Dave
 
A few back fires out the muffler? seems if it were out 180 it would fire out the crb too. Maybe only out by a gear tooth and is too retarded to catch and start. You also state it turns faster when it gets fuel, also a hint of the timeing being out. Just a thought.
 
New coil new points new condensor..as said earlier. Doesn't meAn they can't be bad though. I will give wverything a once kver tonight starting with checking TDC.
 
Well, I am finally home, and about to look it over. I will be back with my findings. Silly me to assume it was running when stored 25-30 years ago..
 
Oh wow!!! My brain was playing tricks on me when I was installing the wires, and bigtime! All of the diagrams show the distributor connections going around one way on the diagram, and the close up of the distributor is flipped.. Somehow I had ALL the wires going around the distributor the opposite direction of how they were supposed to be. . I yanked all the wires off, trusted the ancient cap I had with the numbers hand painted on it, annnnd....

It sprang to life and idled like a brand new engine until the gas I dribbled down the carb ran out. No ticks, no knocks, nothing. It ran quietly, and the smithy muffler I shoved on the end of the rusty tailpipe beat out a steady lumlumlumlumlum.. I am ecstatic, as you might imagine!! Thanks for the help guys..!!
 
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