Ron Earp
Admin
You guys are the smartest troubleshooters I know. Let’s troubleshoot.<o
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I have a 72 Ford Tornio with a 351, 4bbl carb, and points ignition. It ran fine. Well, it ran ok. But it ran. Notice past tense verb use.<o></o>
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While awaiting for my big block build to get firmed up I thought I’d rebuild the 4bbl carb and convert to a Pertronix electronic ignition. I’ve rebuilt 4bbls before and converted cars to Pertronix setups with no problems. <o></o>
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So I got a Holley rebuild kit and a Pertronix for a Ford. This is a CJ big head engine but it is not wearing the original carb nor the original dual points dizzy. I do have the original dual points dizzy but I imagine the original carb got lost in the 36 odd years since the car was built. Carb looks like a 600 cfm and did work. I digress.<o></o>
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The Pertronix install was straight forward. Remove points, install Pertronix, set magnet gap, done deal.<o></o>
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The carb build was relatively straightforward. Remove, disassemble, scrape a lot of gaskets, replace some parts, notice that lots of settings like float bowl height were very wrong, and so on. Put carb back together, set heights, rough idle mixture, etc.
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Primary Axiom Violation: I did two things at once, the carb rebuild and points conversion. <o></o>
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That said, here’s what happened, Take One:<o></o>
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On initial fire up the car was hard to start and hard to keep running. The tach did not register correctly and would read zero, then when some cylinders fired read some low RPM, etc. Just bounced around. The motor was clearly missing on more than a couple of cylinders but would “run”. When Jeff kept it running one time it went “Bang” and a big flame came out of the carb and burned for about 10 seconds. I did my best Beavis imitation and yelled “Fire! Fire!” and ran away. The garage was full of rich fumes that made Ed the Dog very unhappy. He ran off too, at which point we had to take a break.<o></o>
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Take Two:<o></o>
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We figure the Pertronix must be the problem so we re-install the points. Same story as take one except the dog couldn’t run off, the garage was closed.<o></o>
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Take Three:<o></o>
Sounds like timing. Runs poorly, our dizzy messing around must have gotten the timing off. Hard to check timing though because plug number one NEVER fires. Others do intermittently. #1, never. We check #1 plug, fine. Wires fine. Cap new, wires are new. Must be timing. We rough in the timing as I’ve done many many times before on engines. Timing looks good, certainly good enough to fire well. I loosen the dizzy hold down screw so I can twist it around as Jeff fires it up. Maybe I can make it run better. Surprise – the dizzy is rust welded to the block, or painted there, or something. At any rate, I can’t twist the dizzy at all. Clearly the timing didn’t change from moving the dizzy. <o></o>
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Take Four:<o></o>
Ran some more tests today. New coil has same resistance as the old coil, about 1.6 ohm. Ford Torino has a resistance wire in the loom but other owners of Torinos has done the conversion with paying no attention to the resistance wire. Works great on 72s I’m told. Checked float level in carbs, looks good, right up to the side of the plug.<o></o>
<o> </o>
I’m running out of ideas. Sounds like timing, but must be the carb is what I’m coming to. But why would the tach be all crazy? Even of the carb were stolen by a hobo for liquor money the ignition system should work beautifully and fire all the time. So it must be ignition / timing. Got to be.<o></o>
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What do you folks think?<o></o>
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></o><o
> </o>I have a 72 Ford Tornio with a 351, 4bbl carb, and points ignition. It ran fine. Well, it ran ok. But it ran. Notice past tense verb use.<o
></o><o
> </o>While awaiting for my big block build to get firmed up I thought I’d rebuild the 4bbl carb and convert to a Pertronix electronic ignition. I’ve rebuilt 4bbls before and converted cars to Pertronix setups with no problems. <o
></o><o
> </o>So I got a Holley rebuild kit and a Pertronix for a Ford. This is a CJ big head engine but it is not wearing the original carb nor the original dual points dizzy. I do have the original dual points dizzy but I imagine the original carb got lost in the 36 odd years since the car was built. Carb looks like a 600 cfm and did work. I digress.<o
></o><o
> </o>The Pertronix install was straight forward. Remove points, install Pertronix, set magnet gap, done deal.<o
></o><o
> </o>The carb build was relatively straightforward. Remove, disassemble, scrape a lot of gaskets, replace some parts, notice that lots of settings like float bowl height were very wrong, and so on. Put carb back together, set heights, rough idle mixture, etc.
<o
> </o>Primary Axiom Violation: I did two things at once, the carb rebuild and points conversion. <o
></o><o
> </o>That said, here’s what happened, Take One:<o
></o><o
> </o>On initial fire up the car was hard to start and hard to keep running. The tach did not register correctly and would read zero, then when some cylinders fired read some low RPM, etc. Just bounced around. The motor was clearly missing on more than a couple of cylinders but would “run”. When Jeff kept it running one time it went “Bang” and a big flame came out of the carb and burned for about 10 seconds. I did my best Beavis imitation and yelled “Fire! Fire!” and ran away. The garage was full of rich fumes that made Ed the Dog very unhappy. He ran off too, at which point we had to take a break.<o
></o><o
> </o>Take Two:<o
></o><o
> </o>We figure the Pertronix must be the problem so we re-install the points. Same story as take one except the dog couldn’t run off, the garage was closed.<o
></o><o
> </o>Take Three:<o
></o>Sounds like timing. Runs poorly, our dizzy messing around must have gotten the timing off. Hard to check timing though because plug number one NEVER fires. Others do intermittently. #1, never. We check #1 plug, fine. Wires fine. Cap new, wires are new. Must be timing. We rough in the timing as I’ve done many many times before on engines. Timing looks good, certainly good enough to fire well. I loosen the dizzy hold down screw so I can twist it around as Jeff fires it up. Maybe I can make it run better. Surprise – the dizzy is rust welded to the block, or painted there, or something. At any rate, I can’t twist the dizzy at all. Clearly the timing didn’t change from moving the dizzy. <o
></o><o
> </o>Take Four:<o
></o>Ran some more tests today. New coil has same resistance as the old coil, about 1.6 ohm. Ford Torino has a resistance wire in the loom but other owners of Torinos has done the conversion with paying no attention to the resistance wire. Works great on 72s I’m told. Checked float level in carbs, looks good, right up to the side of the plug.<o
></o><o
> </o>I’m running out of ideas. Sounds like timing, but must be the carb is what I’m coming to. But why would the tach be all crazy? Even of the carb were stolen by a hobo for liquor money the ignition system should work beautifully and fire all the time. So it must be ignition / timing. Got to be.<o
></o><o
> </o>What do you folks think?<o
></o><o
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