Edelbrock Carb

[Guest]

I will be putting a 1406 on my 59 Bird with a 352 in it, but I think I need a Ford Throttle Lever Adapter. I looked on Edelbrocks web site and only found 1 Pt# 1483 but it is for 1968 and later as I don't know that much about these things will someone tell me what I need for this set-up.
Thanks
Bob M

[Guest]

I think 68 was a cable not hard linkage. I could be wrong. I'm going to look at one tommorrow at autozone if they have one and see what's up. On my 60 I drilled a small hole in the end of the rod for a cotter pin. The 1406 is going on my 66. I like idea of a little MPGssssss.

[Guest]

I had the 1406 on for a while before I went tripower, and the 1406 bolted right on 59 with no adapters of kits, bolted on and drove right out the garage.

Just my 2cents

[YellowRose]

Edelbrock Carb

I will ditto what Skyd just said. We just finished putting a new Edelbrock 1406 on my '59 352 a few minutes ago with no problems whatsoever. We replaced my Holley 4106 or whatever that was. It was a bolt right on job. We did replace the gasket under the spacer and above it. The one that was one there was thin. The new one is a bit thicker. The Edelbrock comes with one gasket for between the carb and the spacer, and all the hardware you will need. I bought the extra gasket to be put on under the spacer.

There was no need to buy the 1483 Ford Throttle Lever kit, or the 8011 Automatic Transmission Extension rod. The linkage from the 1406 lined with up with the Ford linkage in place.

Unfortunately, the installation of a new fuel pump and 1406 carb did NOT end my rough idle problem. I still have it, even with the new fuel pump and carb. It is driving me crazy. We thought that one or the other was going to fix the problem. We also put in new plugs today and that did not fix the problem. We can tell that the engine is performing better with the Edelbrock in place, but I still have that rough idle problem. The spark plugs show lean burning on the first and last plug on the drivers side and the two center plugs on the passenger side. So that Holley was not getting enough gas to them. There is no indication of anything bad going on with any of the plugs, other than that. So the battle continues.

But, know I know that an Edelbrock will bolt right on my '59 with the intake manifold off the factory floor without those kits that Edelbrock was trying to sell me.

Good Birding!

[Guest]

Ithink someone said that.......................

[Alan H. Tast, AIA]

Have you checked the distributor cap for cracks?

[byersmtrco]

What Alan said !!!

Check your cap, rotor & wires. Don't guess. Put it on a scope. Also check the voltage to the coil & dist.

[YellowRose]

Edelbrock Carb

Hi John and Alan,

Dist. cap and rotor have been replaced in the last few weeks. I just walked back in from the garage after inspecting each closely with a flashlight. No cracks. The plug wires are fairly new also, but Rich is going to check them again tomorrow morning and reset the timing with his timing light. As for putting it on a scope, neither he nor I have one to do that with.

The vacuum advance module is brand new, as is the fuel pump, the spark plugs (Autolite 45's because they did not have any Champion F-11Y's) and now the carb with the Edelbrock 1046 is on the car. The fuel lines are new, or have been blown out, except the main fuel line has not been blown out before we put the "new" tank on. Tomorrow morning we are going to disconnect the main fuel line from the tank and attach a new piece of fuel line and draw gas out of a gas can to see if we still have the problem. If we do, that should eliminate any problems in the main fuel line and tank. If we don't, then that line is coming off to be replaced, or cleaned out. The tank is used but is a good tank, I think. Before installing it, I had it cleaned, flushed, sealed and cured before putting it on. We will also do plug wire resistance checks in the morning.

It is entirely possible that the Pertronix Igniter II or the ACCel coil might be the culprit here. The voltage to the coil is 11.3V and to the distributor, the same, as I recall from todays tests. The connections inside the distributor seem to be tight. But some people have had problems with these Pertronix Igniter systems. I tried to contact them today, but was not able to get ahold of anyone in Tech Support. We will continue on. If I keep going, everything related to fuel and ignition might be new.

When the car is in park and idling, it has a nice steady sound to the engine, but often you will hear it hiccup once, than run smooth for a bit more, and hiccup or miss again, once, maybe twice in a row, run smooth again, hiccup and keep doing this. So even in idle something is going on. When you drop it into gear, it goes right into a rough idle, and the only way you can keep it from dying, often, is to increase the idle speed.

When we put on the fuel pump and still had the Bird jacked up, we started the car to check for any gas leaks. We had one, so stopped and tightened that up, and started the car again. The reading on the inline fuel pressure gage went to a 5 and I was thrilled! I thought, "great, this fuel pump is working right"! The shop manual says you should have 4-6psi out of the fuel pump. The see through fuel filter (also brand new) was showing about half full of gas or so. Everyone has been telling me I should be getting a strong 5-6psi reading. We dropped the jack down and took out the stands to check to see if the roughness was gone because of increased fuel pressure.

When we started the car up again (now sitting fully on the ground, but on a slight incline because of my driveway) the gage only went up to about 3psi, and then dropped off to about 2.75 or so and I was right back where I started from! The fuel filter was barely showing any gas in it. We could not figure out why I got a full 5psi reading while on the shop jack and floor jacks, and a 2.75 when on the ground again. The rough idle was also there still. So the new fuel pump did not fix that, nor did the new carb, for that matter, although Rich said the engine was sounding better running off the new carb.

I really do not understand why we would get a 5psi reading on the jacks, and a 2.75 on the ground. And yes, the spacer was installed with the thick part facing forward towards the radiator.

I apologize. This has gotten to be to long. I am just whacked out about why we cannot find this problem yet. I am going to have a totally new engine compartment at this rate!

Good Birding!

[Alan H. Tast, AIA]

If you're relying on the harmonic balancer and a timing light, good luck - especially if you have a later style balancer with rubber between the outer (pulley) and inner parts. Over time the rubber will fail, and the pulley will rotate/shift out of place. I don't remember if the '58-'59-style pulleys with the large flange have rubber bonding the pulley together, but if it does you will want to adjust your timing using a vacuum gauge or by ear. A search of this forum's archives should yield the procedure on how to time by vacuum.

[JohnG]

Since you are going through the fuel system, you might clean out the screen that is in the tank. It is not removable but you can spray it from outside with cleaner and blow it out with compressed air and let the
debris come out the drain plug on the other side.

Other thoughts: is the flap in the exhaust on the passenger's side
opening correctly?? (assuming you have one) It is supposed to open thanks to that external bimetallic spring, I believe, once the motor is warmed up.

Have you done a compression test on all cylinders??

Have you hooked up a vaccum gauge and watched it at idle??

Frustrating, ain't it??

John

[YellowRose]

Edelbrock Carb

Hi John,

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the filter in the gas tank, thanks for that idea. And the others also. A compression check was run, and nothing bad showed. The timing was set using a timing gun this morning. It was not off much. A vacuum check was performed also and we got a steady as a rock 21lbs pressure (I guess that is the right terminology). Then we put the timing gun and the attachment for checking the spark plug cables to work. There were several that were a bit suspicious, and #6 was really bad. We pulled the ACCel spark plug wires off, looked at them and saw some bad connectors, especially #6.

Rich got a new set of plug wires from Autozone. As soon as he put a new plug wire on #6 and we started the engine, after running it for a few minutes, we put it in gear and it ran like a top. No rough idling problems... We let it sit there in gear with the emergency brake on and the wheels blocked, for awhile to see what it would do. Works great! I threw the AC on and the same thing.. So we put the rest of the plug wires on and later on I drove it up and down the street. It is sounding and running like new... Who wudda thunk! The spark plug wires was a new set when I bought the car. The previous owner said he had recently put them on. Sometimes it is the simplest of things that go wrong as one or more of you have said... It is something that we probably should have checked at the beginning, but didn't think we needed to since they were pretty new... Live and Learn

Thanks to all for the great help in tracking this down, and all your suggestions. Maybe the problems I went through in tracking this down will keep someone else from going through the same thing. I learned a lot about my Bird, though, from others, from reading the manual and from Bart and Rich! I dont regret putting a new carb on it, because I was not impressed with the Holley. Now I have a great Edelbrock 1406 on it, a new fuel pump, which I might not have needed, but now have a spare in case I do in the future. My vacuum advance module is new, and my Pertronix Igniter II apparently, is working right after all. And I have new fuel hosing, and my vacuum is great and so is the engine, apparently. So I have a lot of new things and good things about the car now. Next comes new front end bushings, bearings and tie rod stuff.

Good Birding!

[Penelope]

Excellent news Ray! As you say, after all that it turns out to be something oh so simple! Now, enjoy!

Bill

[JohnG]

I would like to follow along with something John Beyers said - "put it on a scope".

I really like the idea because you get to analyze the ignition system and isolate the problem. This would seem to be both quicker and cheaper, not to mention more interesting.

That said, John, how do you put your car on a scope? Do you own a vintage unit from the 60s? or drive in to a friendly garage??

I have wanted to buy one for awhile but the only source I see is Ebay and they are always "local pickup only" or "no way to test this - seems like it will work".

Anyone with any useful information here appreciated!!

John