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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / starting problem

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Posted By Discussion Topic: starting problem -- page: 1 2     41woodie 03-25-2012 @ 4:50 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 11 Joined: Jun 2011 I have a 41 ford with starting problem. Car idles great & runs great. However, when temp. guage reaches past 3/4, either by driving or idleing in driveway, it will not restart after being shut off. It turns over ok, but will not restart. Is this what the grose jet is supposed to solve or am i just not starting the car properly? When cranking, I slightly depress the accelerator a couple of times. Thanks to all for any help as I am a novice to this. The forum is great. 35ford 03-25-2012 @ 5:56 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 63 Joined: Oct 2009 I would suggest you have the coil rebuilt by Skip in Fl. I have sent my complete Distributor with the coil and condenser to him to rebuild. He can then set it up on his Heyer machine and test run it. I week is the usually the turn around time. jmho supereal 03-25-2012 @ 7:55 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 When the coil gets hot, the spark intensity weakens. Coupled with the high current draw of the starter, there isn't enough "juice" to start the engine until it cools off. Every old Ford starts differently, but pumping the accelerator usually aggravates the starting problem when the engine is hot. Just depress the accelerator a bit, but don't pump it. The advice to have your coil rebuilt by Skip Haney is right on. All old Ford coils fail when hot. This message was edited by supereal on 3-25-12 @ 7:57 PM supereal 03-25-2012 @ 7:55 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 When the coil gets hot, the spark intensity weakens. Coupled with the high current draw of the starter, there isn't enough "juice" to start the engine until it cools off. Every old Ford starts differently, but pumping the accelerator usually aggravates the starting problem. Just depress the accelerator a bit, but don't pump it. The advice to have your coil rebuilt by Skip Haney is right on. All old Ford coils fail when hot. Old Henry 03-25-2012 @ 8:05 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 738 Joined: Apr 2010 First of all make sure you've got enough gas in the tank. I spent two hours one night on the side of the road checking everything that follows to eventually discover I was out of gas. Before blaming the coil and sending it out for possible unecessary rebuild make sure that is the culprit. When the car won't start check for spark at the plugs. If you have spark the coil is probably OK. Then check for fuel by deflecting the accelerator linkage while looking into the carburetor to see if any gas squirts. If not, my first guess would be vapor lock. One easy test for possible vapor lock is to pour cold water on the fuel pump for a bit then see if it starts. If so, it's vapor lock. I had that chronic problem until I installed a back up electric fuel pump back by the gas tank to prime the mechanical pump for a few seconds when vapor locked. If cooling the pump doesn't revive it you'll need to check the pump with a pressure gauge for 1.2 to 3.5 lbs of pressure. If you have no spark that can be a number of different things easier to fix than the coil. Coil can be checked by plugging a spark plug wire in place of the high tension wire, put next to a head bolt, then remove the low tension wire to the distributor and attach a jumper wire to the distributor side of the coil. Then tap the other end of that wire on a head bolt. That will create the same circuit breaking that the distributor does and should show spark where the high tension wire is near the head bolt. If that works then you've isolated something at the distributor as the culprit. Most likely the condenser. That's easy to take out and check with a multimeter or just replace. I paid big bucks to rebuild my engine when it wouldn't start just to find out when the rebuild was done and it still wouldn't start that it was the "new" condenser I'd recently put in. Costly diagnostic error. Oh, and I've replaced too many coils needlessly thinking that must be the problem when it always turned out to be something else. Keep us posted on progress. Old Henry (The older I get, the better old looks.) This message was edited by Old Henry on 3-25-12 @ 8:09 PM TomO 03-26-2012 @ 7:53 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7271 Joined: Oct 2009 I agree with Old Henry that the spark should be checked before spending money to rebuild it. Check the spark when the engine is idling at normal or above normal operating temperatures. Remove a spark plug wire and hold it near a head bolt. It should be blue in color and at least 1/2" long. Weak spark can be caused by a weak condenser as well as a bod coil. Vapor lock is rare. If your car will not start and your spark is good, check for flooding. Wait a while before retrying to start and then hold the pedal to the floor while trying to start the engine. Another check for flooding is to pull all of the plugs and look for gas on the or a black sooty deposit caused by a rich mixture. I have carried a rebuilt coil in my spare parts for years. I have a rebuilt coil on my car also. The coils available for our cars are old or made off shore and are not as reliable as a rebuilt coil. Tom supereal 03-27-2012 @ 10:17 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 I agree with TomO regarding the quality of new offshore coils. I have a box full of old Ford coils we keep as cores if we need to have them rebuilt. None of them passed a trial on the road. Most stumbled and quit, others wouldn't allow restarting. The problem is usually a breach in the insulating material around the windings that allows internal shorts, severely reducing the efficiency of the coil, particularly if hot. Investing in a quality rebuild will go a long way toward trusting your car. Out on the road is not a good or safe place to diagnose problems. I've never been able to detect impending coil failure by looking at the color of the spark, because you have to see it under a variety of operating conditions. Coil testing equipment requires heating the coils to a high temperature, and even then, are not always accurate in judging condition. swmddo 04-01-2012 @ 9:39 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 111 Joined: Oct 2009 Another (stupid) question regarding coils...if I have a 6-volt positive ground system and an aftermarket coil, which of the terminals has the higher number of windings? That is, how do you connect a 6-volt coil that was built for a 6-volt negative ground vehicle (ala tractor, etc.) Or more simply, which of the coil terminals is connected to the starting solenoid? Thanks This message was edited by swmddo on 4-1-12 @ 10:13 AM supereal 04-01-2012 @ 10:31 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 When using a "modern" coil, the wire from the ignition switch should be connected to the terminal bearing the same polarity mark as the "hot" side of the battery. Thus, in a positive ground system, the wire from the ignition switch will will connect to the (-) terminal, with the (+) side toward the distributor. If the modern coil is marked "dist" and "batt" for a negative ground system, connect the "batt" side to the distributor for a positive ground. Be sure to bypass the ignition circuit resistor, as most round coils have a built in resistor. As to The number of windings, both the primary and secondary winding terminate at the input terminal. The other end on the primary is connected to the low voltage terminal of the distributor. The other end of the secondary winging appears at the high voltage tower of the coil, and teminates at the high voltage input of the distributor cap. This often confusing to others, and is not a stupid question, by any means. swmddo 04-01-2012 @ 10:41 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 111 Joined: Oct 2009 Thanks. At one point, I had the connections backwards and all ran well for about 2 miles...then the engine stopped. Unfortunately, I had also replaced the high voltage wire from the top of the coil to the distributor. That wire was a "modern" one and it was designed for high tension sparks...my theory was that the wire ALSO caused problems as it may have generated too much resistance as the coil heated up.

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