Since a while I could whilst driving, feel my engine loosing power only now and then for maybe a 10th of a second or so. That only happened occasionally – let’s say once or twice a drive - and had the plan to check fuel, carb, and ignition, but before I even made time to do so, the engine stalled suddenly during my last drive. Good thing was it only happened about a mile from home, and even though running rough, I could make it home.
I pulled the carb apart, cleaned it (rust particles for the tank), checked and rinsed the fuel lines, installed an additional look-through filter, checked fuel pressure, and tried to run the engine again. It did start immediately, but was unable to keep it running, and had quite some backfires.
Next step, the ignition. I was still running the old dual breaker point Motorcraft distributor, and did note quite some play on the rotor and cap (at least a few degrees), and one of the breaker points did look quite second hand. Not planning to keep on running breaker points anyway, I installed a Pertronix breakerless kit, together with a new rotor and cap, and changed all of the spark plugs as I couldn’t tell how long the mounted plugs were in use. Set engine at TC (end of compression stroke #1), rotor pointing to cylinder 1 (in the distributor), and positioned the distributor in exact the same position as previously (I marked everything). Engine starts immediately but keeps running kind of rough, and still keeps on backfiring, making the engine stall. Backfiring happens via the inlet manifold/carb – no exhaust bangs or such…
What would be my next step. Any recommendations from my fellow petrol heads???
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