Utard
Well-known member
So it's Friday. It's a beautiful day to get the Mustang out of the garage and do some cruising around. I've had it out a couple of times since winter, so it isn't a maiden voyage.
The Mach is idling pretty rough. Damn these Cleveland's are cold blooded!
It takes some time to warm up.....
Plenty warm and still loping. That's just fine cause tomorrow is Saturday and I've got nothing to do. A tune up sounds like a fine idea and a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Now is a great time to get that vacuum gauge and do a real tune!
So let's have a look around and see what's in need of attention.
The plugs only have 300 miles on them, lets look under the cap.
Wow! Cap and rotor look terrible! Points look pretty bad too. Off to the parts store!
The fun is about to begin........
In go the points and it's time to gap.
Um, what the hell? The points plate is moving all over the place! How do you gap points that won't hold still? I wonder since I'm here and I just got this fancy vacuum pump tool what the condition of the vacuum advance is. Pump, pump, pump.... No vacuum. Nada. Nothing moves. Not a thing is advancing other than my confusion.
Maybe it's stuck, off it comes. Seems like it doesn't want to move but it will, and when it does it's pretty obvious that the diaphragm is completely shot.
Well, lots of phone calling and it turns out that nobody has a vacuum advance unit in stock unless I buy the distributor to go with it.
Well, I could spend a hundred bucks and get her running, or perhaps now might be the time to change out that distributor and quit messing with the points. Pretty easy decision. I've been eyeballing that Pertonix for a while now.
So, to finally come to the point......
The resistance wire!
Here is my understanding of what it means to bypass it.
I leave the underdash wiring alone, and hook up the wire that was going to the + side of the coil to the + side of the coil. I then run a new wire that is 12v switched to the red wire on the Pertonix module that comes out of the distributor.
Am I understanding correctly?
I have the factory tach and would prefer that it still work.
I'm planning to go with the ignitor II a new flame thrower coil.
If I am not correct in my understanding, which happens a lot, then would someone please be so kind as to walk me through what I'm supposed to do? Please be as specific as possible. I'm not completely stupid, but just dumb enough to make my life hard.
On a side note...
How the hell was my car running even marginally well with the vacuum advance not functioning at all? It never seemed to me that it had the power it should have, but it never backfired or stalled or anything. I wonder if that had anything to do with why it was so damn hard to get it to pass emissions.
Thanks for your help!
Scott
The Mach is idling pretty rough. Damn these Cleveland's are cold blooded!
It takes some time to warm up.....
Plenty warm and still loping. That's just fine cause tomorrow is Saturday and I've got nothing to do. A tune up sounds like a fine idea and a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Now is a great time to get that vacuum gauge and do a real tune!
So let's have a look around and see what's in need of attention.
The plugs only have 300 miles on them, lets look under the cap.
Wow! Cap and rotor look terrible! Points look pretty bad too. Off to the parts store!
The fun is about to begin........
In go the points and it's time to gap.
Um, what the hell? The points plate is moving all over the place! How do you gap points that won't hold still? I wonder since I'm here and I just got this fancy vacuum pump tool what the condition of the vacuum advance is. Pump, pump, pump.... No vacuum. Nada. Nothing moves. Not a thing is advancing other than my confusion.
Maybe it's stuck, off it comes. Seems like it doesn't want to move but it will, and when it does it's pretty obvious that the diaphragm is completely shot.
Well, lots of phone calling and it turns out that nobody has a vacuum advance unit in stock unless I buy the distributor to go with it.
Well, I could spend a hundred bucks and get her running, or perhaps now might be the time to change out that distributor and quit messing with the points. Pretty easy decision. I've been eyeballing that Pertonix for a while now.
So, to finally come to the point......
The resistance wire!
Here is my understanding of what it means to bypass it.
I leave the underdash wiring alone, and hook up the wire that was going to the + side of the coil to the + side of the coil. I then run a new wire that is 12v switched to the red wire on the Pertonix module that comes out of the distributor.
Am I understanding correctly?
I have the factory tach and would prefer that it still work.
I'm planning to go with the ignitor II a new flame thrower coil.
If I am not correct in my understanding, which happens a lot, then would someone please be so kind as to walk me through what I'm supposed to do? Please be as specific as possible. I'm not completely stupid, but just dumb enough to make my life hard.
On a side note...
How the hell was my car running even marginally well with the vacuum advance not functioning at all? It never seemed to me that it had the power it should have, but it never backfired or stalled or anything. I wonder if that had anything to do with why it was so damn hard to get it to pass emissions.
Thanks for your help!
Scott