Working on a buddy's '84 F-150 2x2 300ci I-6. It's a compound of problems. I posted about this much earlier (last summer maybe)... but I'll go through the history because what we all thought the problem was.... wasn't.

~Nov 2000:
* He buys it for $1,000. Bad motor, nice paint, no 'rust moth' holes, basically perfect shape (for New Hampshire).
* He brings it to a "recommended" (by someone else) shop.
* Shop throws an '86 300ci in it. Hacked wiring et al.

May - Nov 2001:
* Truck won't start after it is parked. Apparent spark, no run.
* He changes fuel pump, coil, ECC module (Beck/Arnley Select) & plugs/wires/cap/rotor.
* Still won't start if it sits after being run for awhile... but will start a few hours later. (we all thought it was vaporlock)
* I wrap the gasline in tin foil (shiny side out
* He occasionally ran the truck, but not too far. With no problems.

Dec 2001 to early April 2002:
* Truck ran great all winter... except for poor fuel mileage.

Last week:
Truck was dying again. An old Ford mechanic handed buddy a known-good ECC module to try if it happened again. Buddy comes over to pick me up for a junkyard run to get parts for it. It doesn't start in my driveway. We quickly change out the ECC module with the "known good" and it starts up and runs fine. We goto junkyard. We get a distributor for the module (broken casting) and leave. We get out of person's driveway and to a stopsign... truck literally dies. I push the truck 1/8 mile backwards. Junkyard comes down and pushes it up to their driveway. Guy puts in a distributor... does the timing by ear and sends us on our merry way. Truck sputs and sputters the whole way to my house. (12 miles maybe) We adjust the timing a little different and buddy leaves. He limps and sputters the 8 miles to his house. The next day, no start on the truck. He calls me over. Spark, apparent fuel... changed ECC modules... you can crank this thing all day long. Occasionally during the cranking, a cylinder will fire. I did the screwdriver-in-the-number-one-hole to find TDC. The timing mark is off about 180. The distributor they put in is older (doesn't use the round rotor, but the normal slot one). The engine wiring is hacked... but it used to run. Any ideas?

I'm sick of working on this Ford

Marc

 

Time for continuity test of the wires.

Beause of weird intermittent use:
1) Possibly a fractured wire somewhere in the ignition harness


[b][i][font color=red]Dennis[/font][i][b]

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:-X11

Okay. Here's the update. Took original distributor apart, replaced the stator (pickup coil) with a brand new one (per my other buddy... Mr. Ford himself who wants nothing to do with this rig). Got the motor to #1 TDC. Installed the distributor as supposed to be installed. Truck starts right up... with the "bad" ECC module that raised suspect a few weeks ago when I was asked to help fix this thing. I used that module because the "short" is part of the design... I figured *that* out after poking around with the DMM and noticed the 3rd pin in question happens to be grounded to the back of the module (which made me think it was shorted and bad last week).... just as the socket where that 3rd pin goes into on the pickup coil is to ground. It's just another added ground path. I thought it odd that a top dollar Beck-Arnley Select part would be dead like that. :-X23 Glad it wasn't. Anyway, we put everything back together... hit the key and it started up.... a little retarded initially, but it RAN. We didn't run it around on the street all that much, since we'd had a few cocktails at the wee hours of 10:30am... but we got it to temperature, let it sit and smelter in the uncharacteristic 85deg weather... and it started up and ran fine. I didn't have time today, so tomorrow the proof will be the road test. I just hope it won't die and make me walk a long way. My blood is still thick from the winter cold.
The next thing to do is to fix that crank pulley so that the timing mark is at TDC when #1 is at TDC. Someone at some point messed it up, so it's off ~120 or 180 deg. Impossible to correctly time it as it stands.

Thanks for the help,

Marc

 

I think you need a new damper. It sounds like the rubber has come loose and let it slip around. I don't think you can install those 180 out from what they should be.

 

You are correct, the damper is keyed only go on one way.
_Carl

 

BTW, I had the stator or rather magnetic coil go out in my distributor and my mechanic couldn't find it. He told me it was the MSD ignition and that I really didn't need the MSD that the Duraspark was better. Well, I went through my Chilton's and they led me through testing the distributor and bingo!!! bad mag coil...replaced the entire distributor and no problems since...although I have since upgraded to the much better MSD distributor...I don't like how the Motorcraft fit together...

 

>I think you need a new damper. It sounds like the rubber
>has come loose and let it slip around. I don't think you
>can install those 180 out from what they should be.

No rubber on this that I saw. Just an 1/8" notch on the block-side of the pulley. Just a chunk of rusty metal with pulley grooves. The truck is an '84, but the motor is an '86. Possible it was changed.

 

You need to pull the crank pulley off of the damper and then the damper is held on with the crankshaft bolt and is pressed onto the end of the crankshaft with a key. If you look at the front of the damper you will see that it is made of an outer ring that is sealed to the piece that mounts on the crankshaft snout. This seal will deteriorate over time and slip, if it gets loose enough, the outer ring will work back toward the timing chain cover and rub a nice hole into the cover. The timing marks are on this outside ring and if they do not line up properly, the damper seal has worn out and the ring has slipped.