The Ford Barn

Penguin · 04-28-2023, 08:40 AM

I had a similar problem with my 31 Tudor. I had replaced the head gasket, started her to let her warmup, then shut down and let her cool overnight so I could retorque the head. Did that the next day and started her up for a quick drive. I made it to the bottom of the driveway, and she stopped. I figured out I had no spark and could make no progress at the bottom of the driveway, so I got some friends to help get her back up the hill and into the garage.

Over the next few weeks I wiggled, tested or replaced everything under the hood with no success. I read an item, I believe it was on this site, about someone with a similar problem who had decided to replace every wire in the ignition system and that worked. I thought that was a little extreme as his car was fixed but he didn't know what was really wrong. I went ahead and ordered what wiring I hadn't replaced already and figured I'd change one at a time. The first wire I replaced was the armored cable from the switch to the distributor. (I do not have a popout so I use one of the fake replacements to make things under the hood look, more or less, authentic.) When I disconnected the cable from the distributor, I just happened to press the button at the distributor end. The button stuck up in the cable, the spring did not return it to the proper position. I had that cable disconnected several times and never noticed the problem. I replaced the cable, being sure to screw it in too far, and the car has been running fine ever since. I have added that check to my list of "this hasn't happened to me before." That list keeps getting longer and longer. I know this won't help now but maybe it will help someone in the future.

04-28-2023, 08:40 AM	#25
Penguin Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Luray, Virginia Posts: 2	Re: Car would not restart I had a similar problem with my 31 Tudor. I had replaced the head gasket, started her to let her warmup, then shut down and let her cool overnight so I could retorque the head. Did that the next day and started her up for a quick drive. I made it to the bottom of the driveway, and she stopped. I figured out I had no spark and could make no progress at the bottom of the driveway, so I got some friends to help get her back up the hill and into the garage. Over the next few weeks I wiggled, tested or replaced everything under the hood with no success. I read an item, I believe it was on this site, about someone with a similar problem who had decided to replace every wire in the ignition system and that worked. I thought that was a little extreme as his car was fixed but he didn't know what was really wrong. I went ahead and ordered what wiring I hadn't replaced already and figured I'd change one at a time. The first wire I replaced was the armored cable from the switch to the distributor. (I do not have a popout so I use one of the fake replacements to make things under the hood look, more or less, authentic.) When I disconnected the cable from the distributor, I just happened to press the button at the distributor end. The button stuck up in the cable, the spring did not return it to the proper position. I had that cable disconnected several times and never noticed the problem. I replaced the cable, being sure to screw it in too far, and the car has been running fine ever since. I have added that check to my list of "this hasn't happened to me before." That list keeps getting longer and longer. I know this won't help now but maybe it will help someone in the future.