Stuck 1600 miles from home!!!

[David88]

Great news. Glad you made it, but that stuff cant be very frustrating.

[bravekozak]

I hate intermittent problems. My son had a small electrical problem the other day. His power windows wouldn't go up and a bad storm was approaching. I pulled the master door switch and used double paper clips to jump the windows up. After getting another switch at the junk yard. The real problem was found to be with the key in the run position. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.

[zoom zoom]

Pics of a first gen b6 disty here. It's got vacuum advance on it!! If there is a way to make it work I'd love to know, maybe the 323 didn't use the same disty as the tracer? I know the second gen ECU was baller and just plugged right in and works.(Thanks to the Saftey Guy) the second genS code VAF was necessary too, first gen P code VAF didn't act right in the Festy with second gen ecu at all but it worked good in the junk yard when I had it fired up on stock first gen stuff.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?49416-89-Tracer-Disty&highlight=b6+disty

[Bert]

All is well that ends well! But the frustration of dealing with a dead car out of town does highlight the inherent difficulty of diagnosing electrical problems. I am increasingly becoming a fan of outright simplicity, namely vehicles that predate EFI and electronic controls.
I have a pickup with brutally simple single barrel carb inline 6 with vacuum-operated distributor. A simple thing such as crack in a vacuum line throws everything for a tizzie (and there are only 3 lines (distributor/air cleaner intake/vacuum-assist brakes)) but at least it'll always get me home. Every now and again I make the mistake of looking at all the pipes and hoses and electric sensors, valves and switches on a more modern car (an Aspire B3 for instance) and I cringe at the prospect of trying to figure out what's cooking when the motor doesn't run right.

[Movin]

Bert, I just had a vw trike dropped off, back fires bad at 30 mph or heavy throttle. No vacuum advance, centrifugal bosch 009, dual single barrel carbs (new) simplest of all, no coolant....I am the forth shop to take it on. Previous shops have charged 700 at one and 1500 at another. This got him a new gas tank, new carbs, new disty, new fuel pump, new wires, new plugs ect among other things. One shop didn't do anything except take a hundred down for each month it sat and nothing was done.

LOL, sometimes simple isn't simple !
There just is not many mechanics left anymore that know the old stuff.

[Bert]

LOL, sometimes simple isn't simple !
There just is not many mechanics left anymore that know the old stuff.

Well, at least that fleeced customer has finally found you, and also should have invested in some old VW books while he was at it! I may soon be having the opportunity to get involved with resurrecting a 47 Merc pickup for a prosperous client. This thing currently is 6V with a flathead V8 and a tranny with no synchros. If it's daily driveability he wants some of that stuff is going to go.

[Banana Bonanza]

I may soon be having the opportunity to get involved with resurrecting a 47 Merc pickup for a prosperous client. This thing currently is 6V with a flathead V8 and a tranny with no synchros. If it's daily driveability he wants some of that stuff is going to go.

Making antique safe and functional on modern hiways, most important things are gearing and brakes. These were geared for unpaved rural roads and many in their first life never went over 45mph. There are kits to convert most popular antiques to front disk brakes without anything drastic like subframing (I'd also use two chamber master cylinder and one of aftermarket power boosters made to fit under cab floor in stock location). The gearing, usually a modern 5spd (best) or overdrive automatic does the trick. Though if you have the enclosed driveshaft, you may have to change rear axle too and go to modern open driveshaft. You can alternatively just change rear axle to get higher speeds if you want to keep stock transmission. No syncros is only problem if you dont know how to drive one. Takes more skill and not a skill easily learned. Few people under 75 have a clue how to drive one unless they grew up on farm with some ancient farm truck. Could think of it as theft deterrent, some punk kid thieves wouldnt get more than block or two cause they couldnt get out of first gear....

The old Ford flathead V8s are actually quite desirable in original applications for somebody wanting more originality and not just stick a more modern small block ford/chevy under the hood. Parts are available and some modern upgrades for them available. Same with the 6V. You can get modern alternator with a 6V voltage regulator if you dont want to mess with antique generator. You do need special pulley if used on old engine, they used wider V-belts back then and you will need compatible pulleys all way around.

[nitrofarm]

Bert, I just had a vw trike dropped off, back fires bad at 30 mph or heavy throttle. No vacuum advance, centrifugal bosch 009, dual single barrel carbs (new) simplest of all, no coolant....I am the forth shop to take it on. Previous shops have charged 700 at one and 1500 at another. This got him a new gas tank, new carbs, new disty, new fuel pump, new wires, new plugs ect among other things. One shop didn't do anything except take a hundred down for each month it sat and nothing was done.

LOL, sometimes simple isn't simple !
There just is not many mechanics left anymore that know the old stuff.

Retarded Timing?

[Bert]

Making antique safe and functional on modern hiways, most important things are gearing and brakes. These were geared for unpaved rural roads and many in their first life never went over 45mph. There are kits to convert most popular antiques to front disk brakes without anything drastic like subframing (I'd also use two chamber master cylinder and one of aftermarket power boosters made to fit under cab floor in stock location). The gearing, usually a modern 5spd (best) or overdrive automatic does the trick. Though if you have the enclosed driveshaft, you may have to change rear axle too and go to modern open driveshaft. You can alternatively just change rear axle to get higher speeds if you want to keep stock transmission. No syncros is only problem if you dont know how to drive one. Takes more skill and not a skill easily learned. Few people under 75 have a clue how to drive one unless they grew up on farm with some ancient farm truck. Could think of it as theft deterrent, some punk kid thieves wouldnt get more than block or two cause they couldnt get out of first gear....

The old Ford flathead V8s are actually quite desirable in original applications for somebody wanting more originality and not just stick a more modern small block ford/chevy under the hood. Parts are available and some modern upgrades for them available. Same with the 6V. You can get modern alternator with a 6V voltage regulator if you dont want to mess with antique generator. You do need special pulley if used on old engine, they used wider V-belts back then and you will need compatible pulleys all way around.

Appreciate the advice. Obviously all of this is going to be up to the owner since it's his baby and his wallet. Myself am not a purist for OEM when it comes to DD (daily driver) status; anything that is an improvement over existing is fair game. You are correct in that learning how to drive without syncros is a novel experience for the most of us. Hudson Bay Trading Post in n. Ontario had me driving a no-syncro 47 Dodge Power Wagon to the boat docks and to the dump daily 42 years ago and that sucker no longer had brakes, to boot.

[jason_]

You are correct in that learning how to drive without syncros is a novel experience for the most of us.

Dads 61 ford T750 tandem dual dump

5sp and 3sp, neither are synched....

Oh man, never throw both in neutral with 60000#, guaranteed with no experience to stop and start over again.....


Sent from my rooted HTC Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Pro

[Movin]

Retarded Timing?

A little, correcting tight point gap corrected that too.
New carbs were perfectly jetted for idle-off idle but the mains were too lean to light the fire.
The valves were too tight and single barrel duals like loose valves better..so do the heads in
this 100 deg weather. New plugs on 1 and 3 are fouled due to missing caused by volks design, with a single carb and tight valves causing excessive idle vacuum bounce. I will clean or replace the plugs then see whats left. The center of gravity on this thing under the front of the rear tires.

This guy is handicapped and I can't imagine him traveling cross country and having a break down!! His son broke down with a harley and it was 6 hours before friends from home brought a trailer to bring it home. We have help anywhere in the country really with Festivas but something like this trike might be lacking that kind of support.

[miami man]

in the past I had the center coil tower of the didtibuter cap get corroded and would cause it to misfire and die so I always keep a spare distributor cap with me . also in the past I had A weird idle problem I could not figure out so I gave up on it so one day working on my car and while I was working on it I accidently dropped a wrench on some wires and it caused the car to do the weird idle and then I found the corroded loose wire that caused my problem for two years then I fixed it