lastcowboy32
Well-known Member
I took on this old ford 3000, because the price was right. It runs great when it runs, but it's intermittent. When I looked at it, we ran it for an hour or so. Oil pressure was excellent. It ran cool and quiet. Then it gave away it's quirk. It just sort of randomly stalled. At that point, we tried starting back up and it would just sputter. Pop....pop...pop...no throttle response.
The price was too good, so I had it trucked home a couple of days later.
At home, it started up first time and ran smoothly for about two minutes.
It then stalled out. Subsequent restarts yielded the behavior as before...just barely idling. Choke doesn't help, no throttle response...just pop...coast...pop...coast...pop...coast.
So...fuel or spark...right?
I read that the 3000 has a "primer pump" for fuel....so I can't just drop the plug out of the carb and measure the fuel flow by gravity.
Instead, I figured that I would have to test fuel flow while cranking???
So...I charged the battery overnight and left some gumout and dry gas in the tank to stew.
First thing this morning, I had my wife start it. It did the old pop....coast...pop...coast routine. While it was spitting and sputtering, I unthreaded the plug from the carb (with a catch-basin underneath)...the fuel was pouring out constant stream as big as the hole for the plug...so I thought.....coil?
TSC has 12V coils for under forty bucks.
I picked one up, along with a variable ignition tester from AdvanceAuto.
Back home, the old coil would only produce spark in the ignition tester here and there during cranking (I plugged the coil wire into the tester directly.)
I installed the new coil. In that process, I noticed cracks in the coil negative wire from the distributor. I replaced the wire and installed the new coil. I then tested the new coil with the ignition tester...no spark at all. WTF?
I took off the coil wire high voltage output wire. I couldn't measure continuity from one end to the other. So...being curious...I tore it apart...it was some kind of weird graphite conductors???? I got a little continuity end to end by clipping the ends and measuring the black "conductors" directly.
I had a general purpose coil/plug wire kit in the garage...I rigged up a new coil wire from the kit and plugged it into the distributor.
Vroom vroom! Problem solved, right?
But...wait a minute....it sputtered to a stop again after a couple of minutes. The choke won't save it when it sputters.
Now, I can consistently start it and run it for a few minutes. Until it sputters to a stop...sometimes punctuated by a loud, underwear retaining backfire.
Was my fuel flow test inconclusive? Might I still have a flow problem?
My brother-in-law is fuel, fuel, fuel....and that's fine...but why was it blasting fuel out of the carb plug this morning and why has a little finagling with the coil/coil wire seemed to help.
By the way...no manual...yet...On my ignition tester, how far should a healthy ford 3000 spark jump? I can turn the screw to adjust the gap. I can maybe get 1/8 inch??
Any other fuel flow test I can try?
Any other suggestions?
Here is a picture for gawking while you ponder...
The price was too good, so I had it trucked home a couple of days later.
At home, it started up first time and ran smoothly for about two minutes.
It then stalled out. Subsequent restarts yielded the behavior as before...just barely idling. Choke doesn't help, no throttle response...just pop...coast...pop...coast...pop...coast.
So...fuel or spark...right?
I read that the 3000 has a "primer pump" for fuel....so I can't just drop the plug out of the carb and measure the fuel flow by gravity.
Instead, I figured that I would have to test fuel flow while cranking???
So...I charged the battery overnight and left some gumout and dry gas in the tank to stew.
First thing this morning, I had my wife start it. It did the old pop....coast...pop...coast routine. While it was spitting and sputtering, I unthreaded the plug from the carb (with a catch-basin underneath)...the fuel was pouring out constant stream as big as the hole for the plug...so I thought.....coil?
TSC has 12V coils for under forty bucks.
I picked one up, along with a variable ignition tester from AdvanceAuto.
Back home, the old coil would only produce spark in the ignition tester here and there during cranking (I plugged the coil wire into the tester directly.)
I installed the new coil. In that process, I noticed cracks in the coil negative wire from the distributor. I replaced the wire and installed the new coil. I then tested the new coil with the ignition tester...no spark at all. WTF?
I took off the coil wire high voltage output wire. I couldn't measure continuity from one end to the other. So...being curious...I tore it apart...it was some kind of weird graphite conductors???? I got a little continuity end to end by clipping the ends and measuring the black "conductors" directly.
I had a general purpose coil/plug wire kit in the garage...I rigged up a new coil wire from the kit and plugged it into the distributor.
Vroom vroom! Problem solved, right?
But...wait a minute....it sputtered to a stop again after a couple of minutes. The choke won't save it when it sputters.
Now, I can consistently start it and run it for a few minutes. Until it sputters to a stop...sometimes punctuated by a loud, underwear retaining backfire.
Was my fuel flow test inconclusive? Might I still have a flow problem?
My brother-in-law is fuel, fuel, fuel....and that's fine...but why was it blasting fuel out of the carb plug this morning and why has a little finagling with the coil/coil wire seemed to help.
By the way...no manual...yet...On my ignition tester, how far should a healthy ford 3000 spark jump? I can turn the screw to adjust the gap. I can maybe get 1/8 inch??
Any other fuel flow test I can try?
Any other suggestions?
Here is a picture for gawking while you ponder...