I did some searching but I'm at a loss. I had a perfectly running 1953 Ford that I've been working on for about a year. Out of the blue, the fuel pump goes out... and one by one everything starts snowballing. I have a fire at my parents house. I towed the car to Texas. It's been through some shit. So I'm starting fresh with everything and I can't for the life of me figure it out, and the reason I'm posting is I heard there were some issues with those early Ford Carbs and the Ford-o-Matic distributors and I wonder if I'm chasing my tail. Brand new bench tested carb. New Wires, plugs, wiring, coil. Pertronix. Finally fired up, but runs okay for a few seconds before starting to run like complete shit. I finally realized I had the spark wires backwards. I was doing number one at the back... Ugh. So I was all excited that I did something dumb and so I reversed them and checked the firing order a dozen times. Now she won't even stumble. How in the world would it run with the wiring backwards but I can't even get it to stumble now that I did it correctly? I'm getting spark... I just checked the plug. I'm totally at a loss. Is it something with this limited year Distributor and carb or am I doing something else? I'm totally confused that it runs BACKWARD but the correct way won't fire!
Start back with the basics from square one! Run a compression test! Check your timing! Make sure your getting fuel! Fuel, spark, compression! You didn’t trade that glass bowl carb in did you? Bones
Have you verified the using the fashioned method? Pull number one spark plug in firing order. Cover whole lightly with finger. Have helper bump starter until you feel the discharge of air from compression. Now rotor should be at firing position for number one plug. Is the rotor pointed to the position on cap with the wire to number one plug? Also a little confused on how original issue of bad fuel pump got you to this point... Can you detail the steps from running fine, to bad fuel pump, to now? What all parts are new since last running well?
It ran wired up 4-2-6-3-5-1 instead of 1-5-3-6-2-4? Seems strange it ran at all. The L-O-M ignition system uses a matched carburetor and distributor. The new carb may be just fine and still wrong for your car. Do you know what the new carb's original application was, i.e. was it specifically for a 50's early 60's Ford six? If not that might be at least part of the problem. The L-O-M distributor has no mechanical advance and uses the vacuum signal from the carb for all timing changes. Has the engine backfired through the carb when it has been running? If so that could have damaged the carb internally. Others will provide more input I'm sure. Please let us know how this plays out and good luck to you. Also hope no one was hurt in the fire at your folks place. -Dave edit: if the carb is correct for your car..., let's just say it could still be bad. I went through 3 parts house carbs trying to get one that wasn't a piece of shit when I owned a '61 Ford with a 223.
Are you sure it's the right distributor? A 300-6 distributor spins opposite from a 223. I swapped the gear and put a 300-6 distributor in a 223 I had.
Look to be certain wich direction your rotor turns. get it on TDC on the compression stroke. wherever the rotor is pointing that's number one terminal on the cap.
Thank you everyone! That got me a few things I hadn't thought of... I'll give it another go and see if any of this helps out. No no... I had the boring pot metal cover that was on it. I just got it sent in and they re-did it and sent it back, so I should have the same carb that worked great before!
Can't put a 240/300 distributor in a 215/223/262 without swapping the driven gear and mating the new distributor to the oil pump drive. Once the swap is made the new distributor will spin the same direction as the original. But, it's the best way to do away with the L-O-M system. -Dave
In reading through all this it sounds like you first problem may have started with fuel delivery, maybe not the actual fuel pump. Reguardless the fireing order it did run again but just a short time. Again sounds like fuel delivery. Car's been sitting a long time. Myself, I'd remove the line from the old tank and drop a hose in a clean fresh gas can and see where that takes things.
The Jalopy Journal
