Howdy Everyone
Long first post - I apologize.

I recently aquired a 55 F-100 bone stock truck from my late uncle's estate. By the VIN its a "239" & has a 3 on the tree tranny.

The truck had originally been his fathers truck who bought it new in 55. The truck is complete except for the bed which is gone.By complete,I mean most of the parts are there but happen to be in a few boxes.

A couple years before his passsing he had slowly been restoring it to new then sickness got him. The ol truck had been sitting in an open garage for about 5 years & the brakes shoes were rusted to the drums.
I got er movable & loaded on a trailer headed for home to tinker on.

I have a shop manual on order but need a lil assistance please.

The master cylinder was bone dry & the piston stuck. I got it off & when I removed the internals with a small rod they flew all over the place. Would anyone have a quick scan of the proper way the components go back in ?? I picked up a quick MC rebuild kit but wanted to be sure in the way it went together.

Also since I have you folks attention maybe you can help me trouble shoot a another lil problem.

I am not getting any fire to the plugs - I'm a diesel mechanic mostly & can get by on electronic ignitions on most gassers but points & condensers were a lil before my time. The points look new & I gave them a light sanding just for good measure but I still get no fire to the plugs.
Any thoughts ??

Thanks in advance !!!

OH - heres a few pics of the ol '55 from my webshots account if anyone is interested http://community.webshots.com/album/26535942ARwdWxGddh

Cheers :-)

 

RogerF100
'55 F100

The shop manual has an exploded diagram of the master cylinder assembly. It also has a diagram of the ignition system with instructions on troublshooting.

The basic ignition circuit starts with the battery + terminal and goes to the ignition switch then to the Bat terminal on the coil, thru the coil to the points and condenser in the distributor. This is the primary circuit. Turn on the ignition switch and measure the voltage between the Bat coil terminal and ground. If you have 12v here, then check the connection between the coil and the distributor. If that ckecks ok, then you may have a bad distributor cap or rotor. If you do not get voltage at these checks then trace the wiring and look for broken or missing wires or a bad ignition switch. Also check the point gap in the distributor with the points on a high spot on one of the lobes. Should be .014-.016 inch. Also check to make sure the condenser is not shorted out to ground, measure resistance from the condenser lead to ground with the lead disconnected from the distributor.


The secondary circuit is the high voltage circuit from the coil to the distributor cap thru the rotor and to each sparkplug wire and each sparkplug. You can measure the resistance of the spark plug wires for opens and high resistance. Check the distributor cap terminals and rotor tip for burnt or melted terminals.

I hope this helps you find the problem.

 

Thanks for the tips ! I'll go prodding with the multimeter & see what I come up with.

The cap & button look brand new with no corrosion or crud, I picked up points & a condenser for it this morning & will swap them out just in case.

Though I thought the truck was 6 v + ground. That was the battery I got for it.

 

The 55 is 6v unless someone changed it, put a test light on the positive side of your coil to see if you're getting power to the coil with the ignition on, if that checks out ok then take your dist. cap off and have someone crank the motor over while you look to see if your points are fireing, if they aren't then you may have a bad coil or a short between the negitive side of the coil wire going to the dist. to your points and condenser.

 

First thing I would do is put in the points & condensor, After that, if no juice to + side of coil, try a temporary jumper wire from the battery direct to + side of coil . May save time. I have always worked alone, have a tool I made, used to be able to buy, took a pushbutton starter switch had wire to go to battery, another wire connected to it to go to coil, then switched wire to go to solenoid, all with alligator clips, real good to start enginge from under hood. Just make sure truck not in gear. If replacing points/condensor and/or jumper wire doesn't work then troubleshoot using excellent directions in previous replies. I like your comment about being lost with points ignition. If it has a carb and points I usually can get it to run, diesel or electronic ignition/fuel injection I am lost. Guess that's why I am into trucks that are as old as I am! Good luck!

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 23-Jul-02 AT 01:40 AM (EST)]send me your email adress
I'll send them to you


soso@ntl.sympatico.ca

 

E-mail sent & many thanks !!