Technical How is this possible?

460 Ford engine with points. I tried the timing light and it wont flash on number one. It flashes on the other7. Got a new distributor cap, No flash. Checked continuity inside to outside of the cap. No fire coming out of the cap.

 

Only on 1? Same issue on two caps? Little more info please


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I tried the timing light and it wont flash on number one. It flashes on the other 7. Got a new distributor cap, No flash. Checked continuity inside to outside of the cap. No fire coming out of the cap.
What else do you want to know? It did it on three different caps but the first has 3000 miles on it. The other 2 are new with the third Made in USA with brass contacts.

 

Weird. So if you had a bad (open) plug wire on number 1 there would be no signal to trigger the timing light, but you don’t mention a miss on number 1. I’d like to know what you find out.

 

Yeah, number one was missing, It was a lightly used cap, so I got a new one from NAPA. Made in China, $22, aluminum contacts. I was 300 miles from home so I put it on. Got home bought MADE IN USA from Advance Auto, $11, brass contacts. Thats when I put the timing light on it and found no flash on #1. The timing light works on all 7 wires except #1. I put a screwdriver down the Dist cap on #1 and went to ground, no fire. I put new spark plug wires on it, tested them for continuity but theres no fire coming out of the dist cap so its not the wires

 

Another weird thing. Its got a bad miss but I was rolling and accelerated, and smoked the tires. Laid rubber for more than 100 feet. Didnt expect that since its running so bad

 

Have a close look at the points , are they opening for that cylinder?

 

Ive never seen one lobe wear on a distributor cam before, but anything is possible. Maybe the centrifugal advance is hitting something at idle and causing a miss? Take a good look inside the distributor and see if anything is loose in there. You could also pull it and reset it to a point where you could move the plug wires around the cap, and see if the miss moves also, but Im betting something is going on inside there.

 

remove the cap, turn motor to number one, with key in the on position open the points with your finger tip. check for spark at the coil wire.

 

A fouled #1 plug will cause that.

 

Thanks Squirrel. The plugs had 3000 miles but I put in new Autolite AP45s. tb33 and s55 have ideas that I would not have thought of. Thanks guys, I will check today

 

if the plug is not firing for any reason, it will not create a magnetic field around the plug wire, so it won't trigger the timing light.

 

I have pulled the wire off of the plug and got spark at the end of the wire in the past but I put a screwdriver in the dist tower and went to ground. no spark is coming out of the dist cap. I will swap plugs and see if the trouble follows. So far I have changed the spark plug, the wire and the dist cap and the trouble stays on #1

 

compression test?

 

I set the valves again, maybe its wrong. Will check that too. Thank you

 

You’re checking at the distributor cap and getting nothing on #1? Can’t be plugs or compression. Rotor tip not reaching the inside terminal on the cap? Seems unlikely, but maybe if it was worn just enough and the cap is just a hair off centre from the shaft?


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If the plug wire is connected, then something not letting it fire will cause the timing light to work. If there is no spark coming from the #1 wire when it's disconnected from the spark plug, then there's something wrong with the distributor, etc.

 

I'm with Squirrel. I think I would try swapping #1 wire on the distributor with #8 and see what happens. If you find that #8 is now dead then you have distributor problems.

 

"no spark from the distr tower" even with all the caps you tried. Is the distributor in good shape? maybe the shaft wobbles at the point of rotation while running but on static testing everything is fine? Your time spent finding the problem equals the cost of a new distributor.

 

I'm in to see where this leads.

 

Summit has a 460 distributor for $77.00 bucks....

 

as akbo47 suggests, check the shaft for wobble

 

Bum plug wire bum spark plug or bum dist cap.

 

Bum wire is my guess.

 

^^^^^ My thought as well because rpm's seem to factor in per OP "Another weird thing. Its got a bad miss but I was rolling and accelerated, and smoked the tires. Laid rubber for more than 100 feet. Didnt expect that since its running so bad"

 

I had a 390 that acted like that. It was the distributor. The points plate had come loose and moved enough that it barely opened the points in one position and really opened them up on the opposite side of the distributor lobes.

 

all kinds of weird crap happens n Shreveport.....LOL

 

Had a 460 distributor that had too many goons inside it.
Ended up self destructing, after fixing multiple problems.
Check your timing plate.
Check all the connections are clean and tight, ground strap and condenser.
Check the cam lobes for the points.
Check the shaft doesn't wobble.

If the distributor IS bad, get a rebuilt unit. The 'NEW' Spectre units are complete shit and do not use standard parts, timing plate, upper spring plate, even the points cam is all different. If any of those parts go off you cannot use over the counter replacement bits to fix it.

 

Swap plugs
Swap wires
Try another timing light

 

If the wires are leaking you can get crossfire from one wire to the other. I would try as others have said, swap one wire for another, then a sparkplug and so on. One thing at a time though.