1969 Ford Galaxie Distributor issue

Tiny
SCOUT95
  • MEMBER
  • 1969 FORD GALAXIE
  • 100,000 MILES
Engine is a 390. Problem is no spark at wires 1 and 8 (adjacent to each other). Car will run with a bad miss, with no spark at these plugs, even near distributor, based on a inductive wire tester and timing light. Its only for these two wires. Plugs are wet with gas. Have replaced the plugs (twice), wires (twice), cap, rotor, distributor, coil, points and condenser, then converted to a pertronix electronic system to eliminate points/condenser. I have tried wiggling the dist. Cap around while car is running, but simply cannot get fire to these two plugs. I'm at my wits end. Could this be another bad distributor?
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 AT 7:14 AM

4 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Check resistance of wires first 5000 ohms per foot and make sure no carbon tracking /cracks in dist cap carbon tracking looks like a pencil between cylinders. Then check compression. It also could be a valve problem like a pushrod thrown or bent. Compression shold be with in 20% of all cylinders.
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Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 AT 8:24 AM
Tiny
SCOUT95
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Forgot to mention compression is dead even at 180 on all 8 cylinders. I also had the valve cover off and it looks like all the push rods, etc. Are OK. Also, this is occurring with two different caps and I have changed the numerous times.
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+1
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 AT 9:04 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
I've done this for 48 yrs so I've forgotten a lot. But dwell should be 30 degrees and i'm sending the correct way to wire the cap firing order ways. But if memory serves me right, these things had vacuum leaks that normally came from the carb and it took a carb overhaul to fix it. I'm assuming this has a 2 barrel carb on it which are pretty reliable. Also the breaker plate used wear the pin where it advanced, not the vacuum advance pin but another on the plate itself which would feel like a miss and the vacuum advance and pin linkage would wear as well. If this has an egr on it as I forget if they did or not, check the egr plate beneath carb as they would carbon an dclog up then burn through causing a vacuum leak/miss. Like said in prior reply check plug wires for resistance, kinda twist them around when doing this as that may be bad as well. Finally check your spark plug gap it should be at.035-40 for it to fire right. It could be a bad plug/s as well. I really can't think of much more to check.
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Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 AT 9:52 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Oh one other thing take some sandpaper and sand points in dist cap as well as running a wire brush inside cap at those points. Sometimes they were sprayed with lacquer and wouldn'send fire to wires/plugs. But make sure to check resistance in wires.
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Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 AT 9:54 AM

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