Desperate need of a qualified mechanic.

[Guest]

Hello Friends, My name is Rex Perry and I have proudly owned a 1959
Squarebird since 1982. Recently I have had trouble with bad mechanics
who have drained me of repair work needed to get my T-bird back to
it's former condition. I live in the Pasadena,CA. area and I am sending out a plea for help! My main problem is slow exceleration and
it dies out when I'm at a dead stop. You can imagine the embarassment
of this with my friends and family along for the ride. Any suggestions? Thanks
REX PERRY:'(

[Alexander]

RE: Desperate need of a qualified mechanic.

Welcome to Squarebirds.

Lots of things can do this:

Improper timing - often you can not set it on these cars by timing light because the harmonic damper has moved on its rubber damper - you need to set it by RPM and vacumm.

Clogged fuel line or malfunctioning fuel pump.

Improperly adjusted carburetor.

I will move this thread to the General Discussion area later.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Guest]

RE: Desperate need of a qualified mechanic.

Thanks a whole lot, Alexander. I will notofy my mechanic who seems to
have figured out the solution as of yesterday. This sight is the best
thing that I've seen in years! Much success to it!
REX

[Guest]

RE: Desperate need of a qualified mechanic.

Alexander,

How do you set them by RPM and vacuum?

I would assume that at a given RPM the vacuum will be X? Is that the way it works?

What numbers would you use? Is it a single point check or do you do multiple setups? Are the numbers typically in a shop manual?

Do you still disconnect the distributor vacuum?

I am assuiming that this will work on other engines as I am actually thinking about trying this on my '49 truck, which is a flathead 8.

[Alexander]

RE: Desperate need of a qualified mechanic.

Yes the vacumn advance needs to be disconnected and plugged. You need to keep the RPM's low so that the centrifugal advance does not kick in. Rotate the distributor until you get the highest vacumn and RPM. Lock down the distributor bolt and reconnect the vacumn advance. Test drive the car. If it pings too much on hard acceleration, retard the timing slightly. Retest the car. The point where you have slight or no pinging on acceleration is the best setting.

You will notice a difference in performance.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top