The Ford Barn

'46Ford · 07-09-2015, 12:55 PM

I have a 51 or 52 Merc v-8 Flathead that was put into a 46 Ford coupe when I bought it. It had not run for a while, it had a stuck valve which I got freed up and runs pretty smooth now. However, it will not start unless I have the timing Advanced (distributor rotated clockwise quite a bit). It will fire up and of course not run too smoothly, I set the timing at top dead center on the crank pulley. It runs real smooth, no misses, everything sounds great, until I shut it down. It will not start up again unless I advance the timing as I did in the beginning. I have new plugs, cap, rotor, same points and condenser, points set at 14-16. Fuel supply is okay, new fuel pump, rebuilt carb. I cannot figure out why it won't fire back up with the timing set correctly. I have replaced the vacuum advance on the distributor. Does anyone have any ideas, solutions to this problem. I was going to switch out the distributor? Not sure if that would fix the problem.

07-09-2015, 12:55 PM	#1
'46Ford Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Hermann, MO Posts: 19	timing & starting problems I have a 51 or 52 Merc v-8 Flathead that was put into a 46 Ford coupe when I bought it. It had not run for a while, it had a stuck valve which I got freed up and runs pretty smooth now. However, it will not start unless I have the timing Advanced (distributor rotated clockwise quite a bit). It will fire up and of course not run too smoothly, I set the timing at top dead center on the crank pulley. It runs real smooth, no misses, everything sounds great, until I shut it down. It will not start up again unless I advance the timing as I did in the beginning. I have new plugs, cap, rotor, same points and condenser, points set at 14-16. Fuel supply is okay, new fuel pump, rebuilt carb. I cannot figure out why it won't fire back up with the timing set correctly. I have replaced the vacuum advance on the distributor. Does anyone have any ideas, solutions to this problem. I was going to switch out the distributor? Not sure if that would fix the problem.