34 ford timing

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old henry 1934

Member
Hi everyone. I'm getting ready to start on my dad's 34 ford 5W coupe. car runs, but here is my question (s). how important is it to have distributor set up on a fixture ? or is this something that can be done by trial and error? Like I said earlier car does run and sounds good, but when accelerating seems to have a hesitation. Plus when hot turns over sluggish. could this be timing ? Thoughts?
 

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Henry ,very important to have it set up on a fixture if its not been disturbed ,but a hesitation could be the carburetor , if it starts good and has good power I would just run it for a bit and see how you go ,
 
What Flathead Ted said, X2. Also, make certain all electrical connections (in the ignition circuit) have a nice clean and shiny surface. That should help with the slow turnover. Hesitation sounds like the accelerator pump, in the carburetor. Good luck.
 
I sent the distributor for my '34 roadster to CharlieNY in July, 2021. He rebuilt it and returned it to me promptly and the price was quite reasonable. When I installed it on the car it fired right up. After warmup up I took it to a nearby flat, straight road. In high gear and at idle speed I gave it full throttle and it went to 65 rapidly without a miss. Charlie also rebuilt the carburetor on this car.
 
As the others have said I would definately have it rebuilt and timed on the Sun machine. As for acceleration, you might have an issue with the accelerator pump on your carbureator as well.
 
A Sun distributer machine is a universal tester for all distributers, it won't set the initial timing. It will just show what advance you have at different rpms and vacuum, it will give you the dwell and show you how accurate each distributer lobe is. It's mostly used for setting up the advance curve of a distributor. I have one out in the garage I haven't used it in 30-years. I use an adjustable timing light to check total advance. You need a KRW timing fixture to set the initial timing. Some guys use a vacuum gauge and set the timing for the highest vacuum and then back it off if it pings. If you ever have the head off, you can make a timing pointer and mark the pulley. Then you can use timing light. Like others said, the hesitation could be the accelerator pump. Looking down the carb, you should be able to see it squirt fuel if it's working. It will only cause a hesitation while the gas pedal is moving. At a steady throttle, it's not squirting fuel so it cannot be the cause of a hesitation.
 
With all due respect, once I've had a distributor on a Sun machine, I've nver had to use a timing light to further set timing.
 
Seth Swoboda said:
With all due respect, once I've had a distributor on a Sun machine, I've nver had to use a timing light to further set timing.
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T

I could easily wrong when it comes to flatheads. The last distributer I did on that machine was 30-years ago on a Mustang distributer where you need to rotate the distributer to set the initial timing. I'll have to see if I have the instructions for the machine. I picked up a flathead adapter for it but I never used it. All of my flatheads have timing marks and pointers on them.
 
Flathead Fever said:
A Sun distributer machine is a universal tester for all distributers, it won't set the initial timing. It will just show what advance you have at different rpms and vacuum, it will give you the dwell and show you how accurate each distributer lobe is. It's mostly used for setting up the advance curve of a distributor. I have one out in the garage I haven't used it in 30-years. I use an adjustable timing light to check total advance. You need a KRW timing fixture to set the initial timing. Some guys use a vacuum gauge and set the timing for the highest vacuum and then back it off if it pings. If you ever have the head off, you can make a timing pointer and mark the pulley. Then you can use timing light. Like others said, the hesitation could be the accelerator pump. Looking down the carb, you should be able to see it squirt fuel if it's working. It will only cause a hesitation while the gas pedal is moving. At a steady throttle, it's not squirting fuel so it cannot be the cause of a hesitation.
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My Sun Machine will give you the initial timing. My Sun Machine is the MDT model. Master Distributor Tester. Not all Sun distributor testers are the same.
 
Thanks for all the feed back guys. I'm really lost when it comes to this car, but I will figure it out for sure, right or wrong.
 

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Your original post questioned timing, so this thread went there. But your description of symptoms only said: "car does run and sounds good, but when accelerating seems to have a hesitation."
That could be a number of things. Timing would be way down on my list of things to check.
 
I would send the distributor to Charlie NY or Michael at 3rd Gen. Also, have them swap out the original cam/advance mechanism to the later version (believe it is an 11A) - gives you a better advance curve and improves overall performance. You might as well get it setup right - bolt it on and know it is exactly correct - small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
 
Flathead Fever said:
T

I could easily wrong when it comes to flatheads. The last distributer I did on that machine was 30-years ago on a Mustang distributer where you need to rotate the distributer to set the initial timing. I'll have to see if I have the instructions for the machine. I picked up a flathead adapter for it but I never used it. All of my flatheads have timing marks and pointers on them.
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you must have 49 to 53 Flatheads
 
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