missing problems

djpink1947

djpink1947

Member
I have a 1955 ford with a 6V system still in it. I know there are a lot of pro's & con's of switching to 12V or keep the 6V system, I've had a problem all summer long with my car. There were multiable problems that all have come to a head. Let tell you what I replaced all during say the last two weeks. I've replaced the carb, had the distributor apart and, cleaned and set the new points, new coil, new distributor cap, new plugs. The problem is, it misses like crazy when you put your foot into it. Now, here is something a friend of mine found yesterday. With the car running the battery is showing just a little over 6V at the terminals. Then he got a reading of 5.25V at the coil. My question is, is my alternator bad? I have a 6V alternator on the car. I've had this part on the car since early 2006. Should I pull the alternator and have it rebuilt? I can't run the petronix igntion because my distributor is a 57 or later and any 6V pos ground, petronix is for the stock load-o-matic 1955 junk distributor.
 
What about the wires? While running pull one wire at a time and see if it changes anything or not, If when you pull one and nothing changes that cylinder has an issue ie bad wire or maybe bad plug which can happen even with new ones.
 
But, wouldn't a bad wire cause a slight miss at idle? I've somehow have had that happen. And it would miss rather easily just revving the car up in the driveway. But, as it is now I rev it up in neutral and it don't miss. It just seems to do it when you put a load on it by going through the gears.
 
Do you have bad spark plugs? I have had some that idle and run fine untill you stand on it, then they miss like crazy. New Champions did that too. I run NGK's and have great luck with them.
 
djpink1947 said:
But, wouldn't a bad wire cause a slight miss at idle? I've somehow have had that happen. And it would miss rather easily just revving the car up in the driveway. But, as it is now I rev it up in neutral and it don't miss. It just seems to do it when you put a load on it by going through the gears.
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Ah ok with that info like Ole Don said spark plug issues would be a thought. It's possible you have a bad one that could have been bad off the shelf or could have been accidentally cracked when put in(It happens sometimes and you don't know till an issue pops up).

Another thought is (I've had an issue like this before) the points wire in the distributor. Being old it's possible that it might have a weak break in it, When it's under load and the vacuum advance kicks in it moves the points wire just enough to separate and cause the break up.
 
I pulled all the plugs and they look good I took my spark plug tested and tested all the plugs too.. They are chocolate color with some carbon around the buttom inside plug. The carb is new it's a edelbrock 500CFM. My question was this does 4.5V to the coil mean my alternator is bad? I ran a check on the alternator today and it showed 4V at the alternator itself. What I want to know could this be the problem? When I took the distributor apart and when I reassembled it I made sure the wires weren't touching anything. The condenser is new too. I don't think I've left any stone un turned. It's really really frastring to have this problem. I missed everthing this past summer and good weather is going to be in short here in Mi very very soon.......Dave
 
You first posted you had 5,25 V at the coil and now you have 4.5? If thats the case then you might have a ALT or regulator problem, It should be around 5.5 - 6V at the coil.


BTW You won't see the break in the wire I didn't find it without doing a continuity test while wiggling the wire..
 
Don't know if this will cause it to miss, but will run crappy. On your coil, do you have the pos+ lead going to the dist?? Usually with a neg- ground car, the neg lead goes to dist. Just a thought. :rolleyes:
 
I was just thinking about all the work I've done on this car the past month. I remember that it ran great when I just installed the carb. I seem to remember that I had a set of motorcraft points in the distributor. while I had the distributor out I switched points and put in a set of bosch points because they were new and I wanted everthing to be new when I put it back together. I think maybe next week I will go back to some motorcraft points and see what happens. Can't hurt!! Right????
 
If you changed condenser when you changed points you might want to put the old condenser in before you swap out the points, a faulty condenser can cause that problem it's rare but it happens,something I experienced once.
 
To everyone who comment on the thread THANK YOU!! But, I found out from a friend who ran a voltage check at my coil and saw there was low voltage said you might want to have that 6V alternator checked. I took it in and it turned out the internal regulator was weak. I had the alternator shop install a new on and low and behold PROLBEM solved..........Thanks again for some good info. I plan on changing the spark plug wires over the winter and a few other things too.........Dave
 
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