TC2 Restauration Project - A complete beginner's experience

Ok, the dizzy still is not in the correct position yet. It goes without saying that - after crankung - the #1 TDC position is lost.

Assumingly you will have to turnthe dizzy a few more degrees anti-clockwise.

Please do not crank the engine too long when it does not start. Not only this needs a lot of electrical energy (which empties the battery in no time) but it also puts considerable strain on the starter motor.

Try the following:

1. Test: Do you have sparks strong enough for ignition?

1. Remove the cable on spark plug #1.
2. Stick a screwdriver or a similar metal object into the #1 connector and place it securely about 10mm from a blank part of your engine. Do NOT touch /hold it, danger for life!
3. Crank the engine for a moment to see if sparks are coming from the metal object and jump over the 10mm to the blank part of your engine.
4. If no, post it here.
5. If yes reconnect #1, continue to 2. Test below.

2. Test: At which position will the engine have enough ignition advance? (Quick and dirty way)

1. Turn the distributor about 5 degrees anticlockwise.
2. Try to start the engine for about 5 - 10 seconds. Do NOT "pump" the throttle pedal, only push it once for about 20%.
3. If the engine does not start, repeat step 1 and 2 one more time (turn 5 degrees anticlockwise, crank)
4. If the engine does not start, I tell you another, less quick and less dirty way ...
5. If the engine starts now ... hooray ... open a bottle of whatever tastes good ...

Gude, the 1 Zylinder is in front of the car, Radiator side!

You could pour about 1cm³ petrol into the carb from above and immediately crank the engine. If it starts for a few seconds it is a lack of fuel. Thats why I have asked you to do the 1. test in Post #62 ... If we have sparks but no petrol the car won't start ...

So the initial reason for your failure could be an issue with the tank. Possible reasons could be e.g. no vented tank cap, something blocking the hoses, water in the tank (will sink to the bottom and the petrol pump will take that before any petrol goes into the carb), dirt, filter blocked (if present), pump membrane defective, float valve stuck, ....) and, due to the repairs before, in addition the ignition problems.

If you think the steering lock is the reason you can temporarily install an additional cable from the battery and put a reservoir of petrol above the carb's float valve.

Best would be to make sure you are having sparks (Post #62) and if you have fuel, put the ignition timing right (as soon as you have a timing light at hand) and next check the carb and fuel supply thoroughly.

Gude, Zanzibar it should give you an idea how to install the spark cable. In your videos the engine sounds like the point of spark or the Zündreihenfolge ignition order is wrong. In the past there was a problem with electric plate in the ignition switch/ Zündschloss.

When you test the voltage on terminal 15 on your coil with the multimeter at start, you can see two facts: the power on your coil is okay when you start.

And your Zündschloss / electric plate is okay

Jorg, I think he has got the firing order right but we still do not know

1. if the ignition timing ist at all richt and
2. if there is an issue with the petrol system as initial problem ...

Voltage in a car? Choose 20. The car utilizes 12vdc. So you are well with 20vdc selected.

Unfortunally it will reduce that measurement from 3,6 to 0,036

The device is set to 200mV (200 milliVolt) which means 0,2V ! This means the maximum Voltage to be measured is far under 1 Volt. If you measure higher Voltage (for example 12V) in this range the meter gives an overflow warning (e.g. "----" or "OL" or similar). The maximum voltage you can measure is 300V DC, so NEVER EVER try to measure your 25kV (25 kiloVolts which is 25000 Volts!!!)

If you measure currents in the range "mA" and the current is considerably higher (e.g. 2,3A which means 2300mA (milliAmpère) you can even destroy the meter (smoke !!) or at least a fuse in the device will be blown. So I would like to suggest to take the multimeter MANUAL, a little battery, a few pieces of cable and a little light bulb to explore the capabilities of the device AND stay alive.

To get back to the way forward with your car's issue it is at first vital to know if your spark plugs produce what they were designed for (... SPARKS) and next, if you get PETROL into your carb and AIR into your engine (air filter is clean, throttle cable opens the carb) as these three things are definitely needed by the engine to work !! As soon as you have found out that these three prerequisites EXIST, we can find out if they OCCUR AT THE RIGHT MOMENTS.

There is no need (nor profit) to find out that you have a spark voltage of 21679,558 Volts, or less, or more. When you fix a simple piece of cable or a screwdriver to a spark plug cable and put that on your engine block at a 10 to 15mm distance, you can SEE and HEAR your 21679,558 Volts without measurements at all. That's all you should find out for the beginning ...

Just my two cents ...

OK, if you crank the engine with the starter you only get a spark on cylinder #1 something like every half second which is normal. If you do not use the cable to #1 for this test and use the cable from the coil terminal 4 instead you will get sparks more regularly. Please keep in mind that more than 12 or 15mm may be too much "travel for the spark so that it comes irregularly. 10mm gaps show that the spark energy is strong enough.

Maybe you can repeat the test and report the results again ... ?

if you put more than 1 or 2 cm³ of petrol into the carb it is quite easy to "flood" the engine. The car would not start then ... It is best to take a little glass or something similar to limit the amount of petrol.

The carb should not leak at all. What kind of liquid did you "hear overflowing", petrol? This could mean that petrol gets to the carb, but maybe with the carb overflowing ... When the zhrottle is closed (idle) you will not feel much vacuum with your hand on the carb.

Fuel system:

Some cars do only have one rubber hose coming from the tank and leading to the pump. When the engine compartment gets very hot the petrol could start to boil in the hoses (from about 50°C upwards) which will form bubbles and prevents the engine from starting. To eliminate this, Ford added a second "return hose" back to the tank so that the petrol permanently "circles" in these hoses which cools it down. Which system do you have? On the carb I do not recognize a return hose.

The fuel pump normally is a mechanical device. The shaft which is driving the distributor and oil pump has a cam that pushes a rod into the pump and releases it again. The rod is driving a membrane which pumps petrol through valves to the pump outlet. The pump develops approximately 0,25 to 0,3 bar pressure, ideal for a carb. There should at least be a plastic filter in the hose before the fuel enters the pump, otherwise dirt and debris could damage the membrane. If the membrane starts leaking or rips apart the pump produces no pressure and does not pump (enough) fuel.

The carb has a separate, own fine filter under the big brass "screw " on top of the carb.

By the way, a girlfriend is very versatile (not only) when working on a car ... Let her have some ice cream too ...

Good morning,

a short test of the ignition system will shed some light on the state its in ...

Regarding the ?fuel? in the engine:

I hope that the engine was not flooded completely because liquid media cannot be compressed an this can severely damage the engine. More problems might be caused if petrol washes your oil film away from the cylinder walls. So best you take out the spark plugs and examine if petrol (or water) is in the cylinders. If there is any liquid in the cylinders you can best remove that from the engine by simply cranking it for 10 seconds while the spark plugs are removed.This will blow out any liquid and fresh oil will be distributed on the cylinder walls. Leave the spark plugs out for today (maybe tomorrow as well) and stick some pieces of kitchen paper towel into the threaded openings so that no dirt can fall into the engine.

At the moment I am preparing a description on how to measure the ignition timing with just a check lamp. As soon as it is ready I will post it here. At this stage it is still a bit early to bin the dizzy, because you seem to get good sparks when testing !

Regarding fuel pump:

Removing the outlet hose (the one leading to the carb) and putting that into a bowl / bottle and cranking the engine will show you whether the pump works and how much fuel is pumped (this is the quick & dirty method again)

If you can get hands on an old pressure gauge (range 0 - 05 or 0 - 1bar) you can even measure the pressure on the pump's outlet hose. This should be at least 0,2bar and should not exceed 0,35bar ... When cranking the engine or the engine ist running you are most assumingly not able to recognize any sounds the pump makes ... sometimes they "ticker" a little, like a valve with too much valve clearance ... If you touch the pump while cranking you can maybe feel the internal parts moving.

Update regarding your video in post 75:

As you took the spark plugs out there is no pressure building up while cranking and in addition you hear air coming out of the spark plug holes (produces something like pfft pfft ...) and due to that the engine sounds totally different. Thats normal.

• Please check: If you put something heavy, a broom or something else on the throttle pedal the throttle cable must open the throttle plate fully.

Adjusting ignition systems with a check-lamp

General (physical) aspects: An ignition coil is being charged with electrical energy (which takes some milliseconds time) while the points are closed. A check-lamp, put in parallel to the points, will not light as Long as the points are closed.

At exactly the Moment when the points open the electrical field will "collapse" and by that a spark is produced. So, as Long as the points are open the check light in parallel to the points will light.

Resulting from that the exact moment of a spark being produced (ignition moment) is at the moment when the check-lamp lights up.

In practical "real life" you will already need some advance at idle (OHC engine: 8° before TDC). So, to adjust this precisely, we have to bring the engine exactly to the desired ignition position. So step one will be "Turn engine exactly to 8° before #1 TDC" (when 8° before TDC is desired).

Here we go:

1) Turn engine exactly to 8° before #1 TDC. There are different marks on the crankshaft pulley. If you look at the front of the engine the leftmost (and deepest) mark is TDC. To the right a couple of medium deep and deep marks follow. (8° before TDC will be the second deep mark right from TDC.

2) Disconnect main distributor cable from coil so that no sparks could go zo the cylinder !!.

3) Connect check-lamp to terminal 1 on coil and the other side to a blank part of the engine.

4) Turn ignition on. Two things, A or B can happen now:

A) If the check-lamp does NOT light this means that the points are closed and the coil is still being charged with electrical energy. The moment of ignition is not yet reached, the spark would occur too late! Then you have to turn the distributor clockwise until the check-lamp is just switched OFF. Now the engine would fire at 8° before TDC

B) If the check-lamp lights up this means that the points are open and the coil is not being charged with electrical energy. The moment of ignition is already over. Then you turn the distributor anti-clockwise until the check-lamp is just switched ON. The engine would again fire at 8° before TDC.

5) It is highly advisable to turn the engine two full revolutions further and re-check conditions.. Exactly at 8° before TDC the check-lamp should be switched on.

6) Finally you can remove the check-lamp, re-connect the main cable to the coil and test whether the engine fires correctly. Don't forget to re-tighten the clamp screw at the bottom of the distributor

7) The process I have described above is still considerably less precise than adjustment with a timing light. But if you don't have a timing light at hand it is the second best solution to get a properly working engine.

You have written something about your check-lamp in the beginning. In fact any small light bulb with less than 1 or 2 Watts will be suitable. The normal automotive check-lamps look similar to this:

I wonder what you hear splashing around. In my opinion this could only be the engine oil or the coolant sloshing around ...

The fuel pump would need a considerable time to flood an engine.You wrote that the pump, filter and hoses are dry ???

Don't forget that we probably have two, or even three issues:

1. Do you get a strong spark with the correct timing? If you can check the ignition timing as described above you will find out.
2. Do you get the correct amount of fuel into your carburettor? Disconnect the hose from the pump into the carb and crank the engine for a few seconds to see if fuel comes out of the pump's outlet hose.
   I still cannot think of anything producing a sound of dripping liquid without getting a puddle under the car. When the carb is not filled too high (hanging float valve or similar) it is imho impossible that such a lot of fuel would disappear in the engine!
   You can also take a canister, fill it with fresh fuel and put the inlet hose of the pump in it. As soon as fresh fuel comes out of your pump, re-connect the hose to the carb and examine if the float chamber is being filled, but not too high.
   The carb is looking a bit strange as well. The left venturi is rather dark and dirty so there might be massive backfire. In your photo there also seems one jet missing (?)
   
3. Does the throttle cable open the throttle plate when pressed? Tests make no sense with a throttle plate not opening!
   I think it is best to inspect your throttle plate with some help of your girlfriend. She slowly presses the throttle pedal and holds it in the wide open position while you inspect what the carb does and if the plate opens fully.

Update: Jörg has just sent me a mail and asked if you have an additional electriccal fuel pump in the car ?? (mounted on the firewall ...)