1940 Ford 9n backfiring

[Dr_Rockwell14]

I was brush hogging last week and ran out of fuel, let it rest and put some in it the next day. Wouldn't start. checked and had no spark. I foolishly left the key on and it fried the coil, so I swapped the coil. Now I have good spark on all 4 cylinders but it is running really rough and backfiring out of the exhaust, If I mess with the carb settings it won't fire at all, it needs to be running really rich in order to even fire. I cleaned the carb out and it was filthy dirty, my plugs also were gunked up and dirty so I cleaned them up but it didn't change anything. I'm stumped on where to look or what could've gone wrong. Any help or opinions would be appreciated

 

[Jim.ME]

How do the points look? The power that "fried" the coil went to ground through the points; chances are the contacts burnt when you left the key on. That may not be the problem, but they should be checked if the key was left on.

 

[Dr_Rockwell14]

How do the points look? The power that "fried" the coil went to ground through the points; chances are the contacts burnt when you left the key on. That may not be the problem, but they should be checked if the key was left on.

I did pull the distributor when I was trying to diagnose why I had no spark and the points looked fine. it's probably worth noting it's a front mount distributor and it's converted to 12v

 

[Dr_Rockwell14]

upon closer inspection it appears that the points aren't opening at all as the distributor rotates. They stay closed. I did try to adjust them but they appear to be adjusted all the way out? another question is will I have to reset the engine timing after replacing the points and the parts along with them?

 

[Jim.ME]

upon closer inspection it appears that the points aren't opening at all as the distributor rotates. They stay closed. I did try to adjust them but they appear to be adjusted all the way out? another question is will I have to reset the engine timing after replacing the points and the parts along with them?

Best to check that the distributor is right in all ways before reinstalling it (assuming you have pulled it to work on this).

Some have reported having to file the slot in the points out to get the travel needed for adjustment.