I am also interested in 61-66 pickups. At one point I had three 66 F100s. Last year a long time member of the San Antonio chapter of the Early Ford V8 club passed away. He was the original owner of a 63 F100. His family contacted the club if someone want it. I really should have said no (I haven't worked on the F-2 in a looong time now either), but couldn't say no. Factory 292 with overdrive truck and "wrong side" bed. First owner welded up grill guard and head ache rack.

 

Great looking truck!

 

Went outside today to take Betsy for a walk but she refused. She doesn't want to go with me anymore. Seems like there's just no more spark.

Feeble puns aside - need some help getting the truck to start. It turns over fine, and I smell fuel or starting fluid after a few attempts. It seems like it's got no spark. I sanded all the distributor points, both contacts on the rotor, the plug wire sockets, and the plug contacts. I gave it new fuel and even resorted to starting fluid. I get no indication it's trying to turn over under its own power. Starting fluid got no different response than straight gasoline.

Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!

 

Have you pulled a plug and checked to see what spark you are getting? Could your coil be bad?
When was the last time you took her out? Did you pat her and tell her how pretty she was before you tried to start her. She may just be pouting.

 

That's probably all it is. Just feeling neglected...

I was trying to remember if it was on that engine that there was a problem with a ground wire at the distributor. But I've been away from it for too long.

 

A volt-meter would help too, just to make sure you're getting power to the positive side of the coil first of all. With the key OFF or in ACC, there should be zero power, but in ON you should see at least 6v, but initially you will often see the full 12v for a bit until the resistor heats up. A reading of 9v is better, but even 6v should be enough to get it running.

A loose wire previously could easily have worked loose again, or depending on the age of the wire, simply be deteriorating enough to cause this problem.
And now that the points are cleaned, you should really turn the engine over by hand to make sure that they are opening and closing as the little cam lobes pass the point's cam follower foot/nub/thingy.
As points get cleaned they may fail to close completely at some point. As they wear they may fail to open at some point. Part of the process of elimination to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to.

You can also check a coil with an Ohm-meter, but I don't know what the readings are that you should be seeing. Others will know of course, or it's usually spelled out in the testing and troubleshoothing sections of the book.

Good luck.

Paul

 

This is exactly right. It's been too long since I invited her out and now she's mad.
Haven't checked the coil yet, but that'll be this week.
Yep. Gotta take her out more often. I'll yank a plug or two, check spark, ohm out the coil and report back.

Good stuff. I will go through everything from the battery to the plugs this week. Ohm out the wires, figure out the coil test procedure, check spark on the plugs, etc. One thing I'm not loving is how loosely the plug wire sockets contact the plugs; they're touching and the contact points are clean but I always prefer "bright & tight."

Keep you all posted.

 

Those plug wires are new. I put them in when I was rewiring the truck, so they might have 200 miles on them, but I doubt it. I seriously doubt this is a plug or plug wire problem since she won't even try to run.

 

Hi Paul.
Lots of sound advice.
He will not get more than 6 volts reading anywhere in the truck as it's a 6 volt positive ground system.
The wires in the truck are new. I replaced every wire except the one on the distributor, which I think is a ground wire. And I seem to remember reading on here that the wire could cause problems, but my seeming to remember doesn't do much good. And I didn't replace it because it was causing no problems then.

 

Understood. I just noticed that #1 and #4 in particular rest loosely on the plugs. All those need is a gentle crimp on the sides. I'll pull #1 and turn it over to see if there's a spark.

 

JIm (52 USCG Panel) had a similar problem. His truck would start but it was running poorly. At Truckstock we discovered a plug wire that was a bit loose on the plug. We tightened it up and it ran much better.
But, in your case, you would think you would get it trying to start unless every one is very loose. You need to tighten them anyway.

By the way, can we have a picture of Betsy. We miss her...Or did she change her name after she left Joe?

 

I'll get you some pics.

She will remain Betsy.

 

Joe is right. I did have a plug wire problem, but was in "denial" about it because I thought they were "practically new". The truck did start and run, however--just not very well. I crimped the wires so they made tighter connections, which seemed to help initially, but the problem got progressively worse on the trip home. After limping 3/4's of the way home, I finally switched out the wires. The result was a spectacular improvement.

I just didn't believe the wires could be the problem because they were only about 5 years old and probably had considerably less than 5,000 miles on them. My daily driver is 9 years old with 200,000 miles, and replacing spark plug wires isn't something I ever think about as needing to do (except possibly for right now as I'm writing this). I guess the take away here is just because you think something is "new" or recently redone, and couldn't possibly be a problem, isn't necessarily always the case.

Good luck. You've got the team of experts on the case. You should be up and going soon.

Jim

 

To Jim and anyone else that wants to read a long post about me being a rock head......Several years ago I owned a 1976 Datsun 280Z. I bought it with TRU SPOKE Chrome wheels. Those wheels wouldnt fit on a stationary traditional spin wheel balancer without a special adapter that I did not have and no one around me that I knew of had.. I found an Alimite "on the car" wheel balancer. I was no longer in the tire business when I found this machine. When I started in the tire business in the late 70's the first stand up stationary spin balancers were introduced and the on the car one was relegated to a far corner of the shop to become a dust magnet. I had never used one. I think I saw it used twice in 15 years. When I started my own repair business in the corner was this old Alimite Strobe on the car balancer that so effectively took on its purpose of collecting dust. It took some finesse and a" calibrated" index finger carefully placed on the fender to determine out of balance or if the necessary correction took hold. I did not use the machine very much so the 2nd time I used it I had the 12 set up steps printed out sitting next to me. After three hours of no success on the right front wheel I decided to follow the 1st 5 or 6 steps TO THE TEE that I was bypassing since I"KNEW" they were handled...1. jack the car up. 2. secure the jack stand in place 3 inspect the wheel bearings for proper torque. 4 position the strobe mechanism in place 5 place go....I had done brakes and a wheel bearing repack the week prior so I knew the bearings were properly adjusted. I skipped past those 1st five and kept re spinning the wheel and "chasing" wheel weights thinking my calibrated finger must not be experienced enough.....Then I started all over and meticulously went over each instruction even lowering the car and carefully positioning the jack stand. I got to #3 and I actually placed my hands on the 12 and 6 oclock position for the first time that day to give it a pull back and forth. I found that I had too much play in the wheel bearings! How could I think I "knew' something, just because I had been into those bearings a week earlier? ....A simple adjustment of that outer nut and the next run up of that tire bore the fruit of a balanced wheel....The left front wheel took 10 minutes.....its wheel bearing was in adjustment already Yup stuff happens to make sure you stay humble. Ive learned that Sargent Shultz of Hogan's Hero's and I are brothers...."I KNOW nothing"

 

Choke detent ball
After fighting to get Betsy to start and, you know, moving her 900 miles north to her new home in Idaho... I decided to rebuild her carburetor. Evidently that was a wise choice since the ethanol in Californistan left deposits throughout.

The carb has been disassembled, cleaned, and I'm beginning to reassemble it. But I've hit a snag. The choke detent ball has decided to become a permanent fixture here with zero intention of ever leaving. It looks brazed in place.

Am I correct in my opinion that it's supposed to be spring-loaded and have a small of travel? Need help on this one. Sure looks permanent, but I watched a grainy video from Mike's Carburetor Parts on YouTube and his was a moving detent ball.

Thoughts? I'll post more pics later on. I've taken quite a few. Carb is a 1949 7HT model, for what that's worth.

Thanks!

7HT choke detent ball