T16 running problems

[Dave Newcomb]

Hi all; There is a site for the Ford problems/sales Fordbarn.com the Early V8 posts are the Flathead stuff... lots of Early Ford V8 club members there and the best ign guru is Bubba's electronics co. Newc in Oregon USA

[Lynn Eades]

Andrew, If you still have the dizzy out, have it checked again. making sure the dwell is correct and timed correctly. (one set of points does each) I have heard that this dizzy is better than the later crab.
As far as load goes, dont be tempted to over gap your plugs. The bigger the gap, the higher the voltage required to fire them and as you know that spark is always looking for the easy way out.
I have read some but not all of the thread, but have your coil tested. It needs to be tested hot as it would be in use. That's when it will break down. (the standard 6 volt coils including NOS ones are guaranteed to fail) It is a hot enviroment inside those engine covers and everything needs to be clean and tight with good insulation.
Make sure your adapter has no signs of tracking or cracks.
Used points are good because the gaps don't change so quickly.
If there is any rust on the points springs then they easily break.
If you are going electronic, then pertronix do a unit that goes straight in.
I would suggest a Pertronix II.
They recommend resistor leads (should be fitted with all electronic igns)
There are leads available that have spiral wound stainless cores along with the carbon. I have gone this way but as yet cannot report on them.
You will need the correct coil to go with the system.
There is no condensor with used when you convert to electronic.
Good condensors are harder to find than they used to be.
Basically you have to go through it all to guarantee a good result.
Finding someone who is good with the distributors and has a timing jig and can run the dizzy up on a distributorgraph would be ideal.
Good luck with what ever you do.

[andrew honychurch]

Thank you Dave and Lynn, some great advice and pointers. I shall check out the web forum you mention Dave.

Lynn, thanks for the detailed advice, and I will certainly check out the dwell. I would dearly like to find a jig so that I can set this up myself, last time it cost me £100 and lasted a short while.

Basically, over here in the UK, there is much talk about the divers helmet being fault, and that this was down to a batch of bad rotors or distributor caps that had the incorrect mix in the bakerlite which led to conductivity and tracking . The tracking over works the coil, the rest is history. One chap I know was in the Post War National Service and they went out in 12 T16s on a 20 mile drive. They all broke down and had to be recovered to works. Every T16 bar one I know about in the UK has suffered from this failure when hot. The only one that I doesn't has the crab distributor fitted.

The inside of my Distributor smells of burnt electrodes. I was going to bit the bullet and fit a Mallory Alloy Billet dizzy but they stopped making them, so I am at a loss.

What I had noticed is that the original rotor was very lose on the drive shaft with a great deal of slack on the square drive. Do we think my high power coil could be at fault? Plugs were set as per the book. I will rebuilt it and try again, but i have lost confidence in these dizzies as I have heard so many bad things about them in T16

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by andrew honychurch

The inside of my Distributor smells of burnt electrodes. I was going to bit the bullet and fit a Mallory Alloy Billet dizzy but they stopped making them, so I am at a loss.

The only cause I can think of, of burnt electrodes in the cap is when the coil is incorrectly wired up on the LT side.

[andrew honychurch]

Thank Richard. The T16 is negative earth. The LT from ignition switch is connected to the + and the - goes to the distributor to earth. Its actually burnt electrodes on the rotor arm, such as it makes any difference. I am confident that this is why the coil is overheating and the engine stops. Just to find out why. I will get there, we always do don't we?

[Lynn Eades]

If the rotor is loose on the shaft, and has turned in relation to the shaft, the arm contact will not be lining up correctly when the spark occurs. this means the voltage has to go higher to jump the gaps at the cap/rotor, and also the plug gap. this increases the load at the coil and the likelyhood of it failing to fire.
Just for the record there are two types of insulators that the plug leads plug into (one each side of the distributor, and two types of rotors (early and late) (as you now have correct T16 rotors you have eliminated that part)
I don't know enough about what wrong parts will fit in, so don't know if this might be a problem.
(I think there are two rotors that can fit in the crab as well) (one right and one wrong of course)

[andrew honychurch]

Thanks Lynn, all up and running once more . I replaced the rotor arm as I am sure that was shorting out and my best guess is that it got worse when it got very hot in the distributor. The reason I could not start it at all is that the second set of points were very very tight to achieve the correct Dwell which had then crusted up and eliminated the gap over the winter. All sorted now, but I cannot say that I have a great deal of confidence in the Divers Helmet with 70 year old rotor arms in. I am going to run it around a bit this week and discover whether I have solved the loss of spark when hot. Meanwhile I understand that there is a new aluminium billet electronic distributor, 2 or 3 bolt about to be launched. This will eliminate the weak areas of the older distributors and should be a great fix I am down for one and will try to report back when I have it.