Stock '36 pickup, the coil failed and I've been told that there's not a reliable stock type coil to be had, so I put a remote coil kit and a 6V coil on it. I connected the stock coil wire to the new coil. The engine has an intermittent misfire under load and is a little lazy. Idles perfect though. Occasionally runs better after a few miles, but not reliably. I went through the distributor at the same time, everything is new inside. Plugs are new, gapped at .035, and look clean and perfect for color considering about 200 miles use. Carb rebuilt also and works fine. Starts instantly with no throttle when hot. The only item not changed is the plug wires. They are the original wires on the truck, and I'm trying to keep it as original as possible so I have not changed them yet. Before I change them, is the coil conversion done correctly? I'm not used to having a resistor on a 6V system, and I'm wondering if that's unique to the stock Ford coils, or if it's still needed on the modern style coil. Is it safe to bypass the resistor and run 6V straight to the coil to test the operation that way?
Have you checked the position of the advance marker on the distributor or the tension on the vacuum advance brake? Plate groove should index on the middle line or advanced one line.
The plate is advanced one line. I reassembled the vacuum advance brake with the same setting it had when I took it apart, the pad looked good and there was tension on the spring but I don't know how much - don't know how to set it. So far I was told it's not real important as long as it doesn't ping, what can you tell me about that?
Run it all the way out GENTLY by hand...wrenching can pop off the spring seat. Turn in 1 or 2 to keep some stabilizing tension on the brake disc and go. If it pings, advance is too fast, turn it tighter just enough to depingit. Go to parts store, find out application for the coil you have and whether said application gets a resistor...some 6V ones are straight 6, some need resistor. I found Ford's field expedient method for timing the 3-bolt distributor with the ruler method and posted it on here somewhere.
I think you have the distributor set to retard the ignition, loosen the screw that locks the timing marker up and rotate stud so that the center mark aligns with the distributor mark, give it a test drive and see what happens.
Got 'er fixed. Dick, I figured it would be pretty foolish not to take your advice, so I set it to the center mark and the roughness under load went away. I moved the screw down, which moved the point plate counterclockwise. If I'm not mistaken, the cam turns counterclockwise, so that means it was advanced before I moved it, right? Counterclockwise from the front, that is. The vacuum brake had no preload on the screw and I left it there. The engine idles slightly slower now, which also indicates that I retarded the timing. I've never had such a small timing adjustment make such a big difference without hearing detonation, but tuning this motor is new to me, and I'm all ears, so to speak. The coil is supposed to be a replacement for a '32 model B 4cyl. The seller says it has an internal resistor. Seller also says the B had a resistor in the harness, so I'm not sure whether it does or not. Anyway, I tried it without the resistor and it made no difference so I changed it back. So anyway, I get to keep my old and dirty 73 year old wires on my truck and it runs good, so thanks very much for the help guys!
IF the thing is right for a B...seller does not sound real reliable as an informatiuon source (!)...B coil ran on straight 6V with no resistor. Does this coil have a number or a source??
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