A disapointed customerr

ford38v8 said:
Well son if a gun, my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me after all! It didn’t occur to me to consider the firing order! Coop, you get the chicken dinner ’cause your head is in the clouds unlike clouds in my head! Oh, the odd number of cilynders? Would that be to defeat any set of symbiotic vibrations that would occur with even numbered cylinders? (Poor wording, I know.)
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Alan .....OK, this ought to let YOU off the hook for the chicken dinner, since you seem serious about wanting to understand. Keep in mind that the ODD number of cylinders has everything to do with FIRING ORDER. You have already looked at this simple firing order on the 5-cylinder radial engine.


firing-order.gif



On the 5-cylinder engine, #1 fires, skip ONE cylinder and #3 fires. Then we skip a cylinder and #5 fires. Then we skip #1, and #2 fires. Then we skip #3 and #4 fires. After #4-cylinder fires, the next in line to fire would be #1 since the order skips ONE cylinder (#5) before firing again. So let's add a #6-cylinder. It may help to sketch this out. Keep this 'new' engine configuration with #1 at the top. Looking from the rear of the engine, the firing order will rotate clockwise, skipping ONE cylinder every time before the next cylinder fires. So, with 6-cylinders, the first cylinder to fire would be #1. After skipping #2, #3 would fire. The next cylinder to fire in the sequence would be #5-cylinder since we skip ONE cylinder every firing. Remembering that we now need to skip a cylinder (#6), which would put us back at #1-firing....NOT #2-cylinder as it previously would have been with the ODD-NUMBERED 5-cylinder engine. The firing orders with EVEN NUMBERS of cylinders just will not work-out in "happy" fashion, no matter how many EVEN-numbered cylinders you have. Gotta be ODD numbers! Coop

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Don't let it bother you Charlie. We all know what a standup guy you are and what great work you do!
Doug.
 
Charlie the fault is on this goofus not you.

Ford made it pretty straight forward how to CORRECTLY install these distributors the RIGHT way it's called Common Sense. You do it be 'feel' lining up the tang and then turning the body to line up the mounting holes. I don't know how much simpler Henry could have designed that. You take your time and don't heavy hand it. Go slow.

I'm no Flathead expert, I spent 50 years around Model A's, but I figured it out on our '36 PU with a 59AB Flattie without a lot of difficulty.

No Charlie, here it is a simple case of 'A chicken has a brain the size of a pea yet IT knows to come in out of the rain'. This guy is farther down the food chain than a chicken:):)

Your work is impeccable and we all know it. Thank you for what you do.
 
Jack E/NJ said:
>>>Having installed a distributor the "wrong" way because the tang was worn enough to let is slip in, all I got was timing 180 out and no damage....but lesson learned....fortunately years ago.>>>


IMO, the hardly noticeable offset was one of Ford's lousier ideas to avoid being 180° out. It woulda been better to risk being 180° out with no offset.
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Or maybe just something simple like a keyed shaft. The offset is only 1/16 of an inch - pretty easy to screw that up (especially if the engine is still in the car). The good news - you usually only make that mistake once . . . usually! :D
 
He should not have tried to force it in place, by running the bolts down without the distributor seating where it belonged. If you repair a part for someone and they don't install it correctly it is not your fault. He should have spoken to a knowable person about installing it.
 
No matter what kind of business you are in, there are those who screw up and want the business owner to eat the job or unhappy with your work so they can get a free job.
 
Hope ur customer is on the Barn & reads all the good testimonies about you, your rebuilt parts & Cudo’s in general! I for one compliment your work & help you offer politely taking the time required to assist. I’m sure many others feel the same!
 
I obviously have too much time on my hands. Since I read the question about how to break an anvil with a rubber hammer, I have been trying to think of a way to do it.
 
I admit I've installed a distributor on my 1934 with the tang round the wrong way
And yes cracked the body. My own Dumb fault - Don't blame any one but me . Not quite as easy as it sounds reaching down between the block and the radiator Trying to hold the distributor in place and trying to feel the tang is properly located. What I do now is use some carb mounting studs loosely screwed into the distributor bolt holes - when the tang is correctly position the body slams up tight against the block and then I replace the studs with bolts. You live and learn -Karl
 
Back in the pre-internet dawn of time I read every single book on flathead v8s. Even then there were many readily available lessons in how to get that tang aligned the correct way and avoid the dreaded Broken Ear.
 
I recently installed a loadamatic you rebuilt in my merc. I used the MANuAL to install it and it worke great!
Rob

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
As mentioned many times over, Charlie's service and advice has always been very appreciated over here! Any customer I send his way always returns with rave reviews as well.
 
Your reputation is far superior than that of someone who may try and slander. New to the “old Ford v8” obsession, and your name is mentioned as one of the best by everyone I’ve spoken with.
 
an adult shouldsay oops I goofed and bear the cost himself; n0t expect someone else to pay for his mistakes, I did the same thing, but I didn't expect the builder to bear the cost, not his fault
 
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