Motorcraft Distributor Alignment Tab

[Turbogus]

One thing not mentioned in the instructions was the wire labels ~ Note: It's much easier to slip these on before crimping the terminals on

 

[Turbogus]

...another tip: When stripping the wire using the sizing crimping block included in the Universal Set use extra caution NOT to cut the Helically wound copper alloy conductor #8

I found out the hard way and ruined two wires.

 

[Turbogus]

Re: THIS IS IMPORTANT

When stripping the wire to expose the conductive strands it is nesessary when pulling the outer shielding from the wire to be pushing the core oppositely. The reason for this is the core strands are so tightly enclosed by the inner sleeve it can become unraveled leaving you to cut and start again!

I used a ball point pen to poke through and it worked well.

 

[Torxhead]

Good point Gus, I have had those strands come apart while making wires. I am really impressed with those MSD wires getting 50 ohms per foot while other quality brands get 1200-1300 ohms per foot. Before computer controlled ignitions I ran steel braided ignition wires that really never needed replacement.

 

[Turbogus]

Yep, when that first happened after cutting that wire to length I nearly had a conniption fit. The good folks at MSD though siad they'd send me a new wire cut to length and all set up. These guys are on my 'great' list.

 

[Turbogus]

I got the e coil comin' in after the weekend and this phase of the ignition will be complete. I went with Blue Streak as they've never let me down.

 

[Turbogus]

Well, I had a custom mounting from the P.O. for the canister coil and I was able to modify it to fit the e coil prettry easily with a cut off wheel and my bench grinder.

I then just drilled two matching holes for the smaller bosses on the coil and it's very snug.

 

[Turbogus]

Re: Motorcraft Distributor Upgrade

It was a tight fit, on account of the forward vacuum hose but it's tight and installed now. Since I moved the distributor when I added that alignment tab I'll re-time the motor to spec.

I've got to get some dielectic grease on the rotor tip and tab before I forget.

 

[Turbogus]

I just ran across a photo of the stock location of the spark plug wires, I wish I'd have seen that before I began this adventure.

I scraped away all of the white paint from the harmonic balancer with a wire brush and isolated the timing mark, I used a white paint pen to enhance my visibilty of the mark as I timed it. Following that I pulled the right bank pluges and sure enough they were fuel fouled.

I could clean all of them up with this old HF mini sandblaster spark plug cleaner, but I think I could go with the Autolite 646 plugs, if this isn't premature. I have yet to purchase and install the MSD 6.

 

[Turbogus]

Well I finally found the Autolite 646 plugs in town, but the Copper Never Seize 11 miles away. So much for the consumer desert.

 

[Turbogus]

Before I pollute those new 646 plugs I ran the 65's through my mini sandblaster spark plug cleaner. It took a while, I think I need some new media but I only need a couple of fistfuls worth.
I gapped 'em out to 45 and stopped short. I've been zombie'n hard between sleep interference from this CPAP I'm mandated to use at night and the 11 hour day at the dock yesterday.

 

[Turbogus]

Yesterday after work I modified the route of the right bank spark plug wiring to go under the Bypass hose maintaining as best I could the wire seperation. When I get some more kazooks I'll get more wire sperators, or make some. I was getting Handyman magazine for a while and they kept sending me 'bonus' plastic bolt sizers. For part of this I cut a couple of rows off and used them as surrogate wire seperators.


I also got some more fine blast media and cleaned up the fuel fouled 65's I had on hand from a couple of years ago. I don't have a lot of faith in HF stuff but for cleaning up spark plugs this dingus air spark plug cleaner works pretty good. I got 'em all installed but for the odd angle on #8 I heard that distictive crunch that meant I broke the porcelain so I had to pull it and clean up another one. By the time I got done it was two hours after dinnertime so I called it a day. I may try starting her up tonight.

 

[Torxhead]

Gus, what would you think about using split loom for spark plug wire protection?

 

[Turbogus]

Split Loom, I hadn't thought of that! It may look funkier than how I've got those wire seperators set up. I re-routed the right bank wires under the Bypass hose to keep them away from the Coil wire.



Well, last night she fired up and ran out better than ever before after spitting out some carbon build up in the tailpipe

Now it's on to the fast idle issue on that AFB...