Heres a little background I have a rusted out 1978 Ford Courier XLT w/ 2.3 and 4spd. Grandpa bought it new in '78, dad bought it in '88 and I got it free in 2011. In that time it got a new head after it wore off one of the lobes on #4 cylinder and a new float. I rebuilt (or attempted to) the original Hitachi carb, and put it back on the truck. The issues I was having with it when I put it back on is I couldn't adjust rich lean let alone get it to idle smoothly. I just ordered a weber 32/36 kit for it. Now my question is, do I need to abandon the factory distributor and black box since I am switching carbs? The reason I ask is there were different solenoids on the carburator seemingly controlled by the black box. Thanks, Corey

 

I have no idea. But, back when I was a young-un all of my friends had mini-trucks. I had a '76 LUV and my buddy Tom had a Courier. Tom's had a 1600, or 1800 in it.

I replaced the original carb w/a Holly-Weber (close to what you have) that were found on the Pintos. It is a welcome change.

Chris had a 2000cc Datsun. He followed my lead and it warmed up his motor. I also put one of those carbs on a 20r.

Stand-by to be well-pleased with your carb.

Does it have a points dizzy? If so, get rid of it. My guess is that the black box does NOT control the timing as that would be a bit complex for that era. I don't know what kind of dizzy that you could replace it with.

Pop the top on the distributor (dizzy)...does it have centrifugal advance (arms, that fly outwards, in side it and turn/advance the rotor shaft). Does it have vacuum advance? A canister on the side of the dizzy, w/a hose that gets vacuum from the carb...put a clean hose on the canister and suck on it...does it rotate the rotor shaft.

If you have both of those, then you probably have a good dizzy that will stand alone.

A 2300...is the same motor that the Pinto used. It is a good motor design....except that it has a cast-iron head and block and it is heavy. But, it is durable. If it is the same, there are a lot of performance parts for it out there and you can find a good performance dizzy for it, or at the very least a stock electronic ignition dizzy.

Take a look at Wikipedia. It will probably have a bunch of those answers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_CourierFord Pinto engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These guys will have a dizzy...if you decide to change.

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