Heres the down low. 1967 289cid ford Performer intake, holly 4160, points distributor. Car ran fine until he put a napa rebuilt distributor in it. Ran fine for 2 weeks after, then developed a hiccup at idle. Parked it, and went away for college. Brought it over to my place. I rebuilt the carb, and the distribuitor - (points cap rotor ect) Distribuitor is tight. Has a dead miss at idle, and hates to rev. Dwell is spot on, nothing burned. Idles like it has burnt points, and starts missing when the rpms climb. Stumbles when you blip the throttle at idle, but responds well at half throttle to punch it. Im comfused! I cant get rid of the stumble! New plugs, wires, cap, rotor...ect My neighbor suggested possibly a bent pushrod. any ideas?
Did he tighten the dist. after putting it in?.....Those early 289's also had shitty timing chains originally too...Notorious for jumping teeth
Two classic tests might reveal the culprit--have you tried a timing light? That'll tell you if Eddie's right, and he might very well be. And run a compression test. If you have a sick hole, then you can find out if the neighbor was right about the bent pushrod or if it's worse. I'd try the timing light first just because it's easier. Y'know what though, I think I'd want a compression test before I returned it to the owner anyway. From what you described I'd be betting there is a sick hole in there somewhere.
Have you tried new points? The points those reman dist. come with are junk. Also check the pints resistance and the ground to the points. The compression test is always a good idea. When I went to auto tech school ( a loooong time ago) they taught us to do a compression test before you ever attempted a tune up, just to make sure you had a tunable engine.
Check all your valve springs you might have some broken springs and just wondering what kind of coil are you running?