1953 Ford NAA Jubilee randomly dying and not restarting.

[Whistlin10Speed]

I’ve got a 53 jubilee that has got me stumped, the other day I went to bush hog and it fired right up as usual but then just died all of a sudden after just a few minutes, it cranked for a while and finally restarted, then it mowed for 15 minutes and died again. This happened a few more times and it did not want to start after it would die, so I finally got it going again and just parked it.

Fast forward 5 days I thought maybe it had something in the fuel so I drained the gas, put in 5 gallons of non-ethanol fuel and some carb cleaner additive in case the carb got gunked up. It fired right up and ran like a scalded dog for about 2 hours bush hogging, then I parked to talk to my neighbor and let it idle for roughly 10 minutes and then just died out of nowhere. It will not start, just cranks and cranks and cranks. It is getting fuel, the fuel inlet screen is clear of any debris. The following parts are new with less than 30 hours on them: Coil, spark plugs, plug wires, battery, carburetor, solenoid, terminal block, wiring, and starting button.

Could this be distributor cap/ rotor related? I can’t think of what it could possibly be as everything else is new and that’s the only thing that hasn’t been changed. It all worked flawlessly all of last summer/ fall until now.

Any advice is welcomed and appreciated, thanks!

 

[showcrop]

Have you tried your test light or meter to see how far along from the battery to the dist. you have voltage? Don't condemn parts until you have verified that you are giving them the voltage that they require.

 

[Jeff Hamilton]

I'd be thinking about an electrical issue - a broken wire or sketchy crimp connector, ignition switch grounding out. I also think "points" since so many out there that are pure crap, but you didn't mention a ecent change out.

 

[Eman85]

New parts aren't always good parts. You said you put non ethanol gas in, did you drain the tank first? I'd drain the tank and check for debris in the tank. Did you do a flow test or try removing the gas cap? All of the cranks and cranks did you do any check for spark during the cranks? My opinion that much cranking with no spark would have fouled the plugs if it was getting gas. I would have pulled a plug or checked for spark, dry plug I'd guess spark and no gas. Wet plug gas and no spark

 

[Whistlin10Speed]

There was no debris in the take or sediment bulb and it was getting good fuel flow out the bottom of the carb with the drain plug removed. I am going to do a spark test today and I have a new distributor cap I may install just to see if that changes anything.

I have a test meter but am not sure exactly how to test the coil. I am going to investigate the electrical as well as the distributor and see if I can find the culprit.

 

[Jim L WA]

As soon as it dies or if it won't start now, with the key on, pull the coil wire out of the center of the distributor cap and hold it a 1/4 inch or so from a clean area on the block, turn the engine over and look for a spark out of that wire. If none, then check for battery with your meter at the little post on the coil that's wired back to the terminal block behind the dash. If you have battery there, then pull the distributor cap off and using a little screwdriver or something open and close the points watching for a small spark. At this point you can check the condition of the points contacts and if they are closing and opening when you crank the engine.
If you don't find battery at the coil then trace it back to the ignition switch and terminal block.
If you got a good spark at the end of the coil wire, then pull a spark plug and hold it against the engine block ( I use a jumper wire that has a spring clip large enough to clamp around the spark plug) and look for spark while cranking.
Let us know what you find.
If the ignition switch was grounding out you would have seen smoke and burned up wires, but they can go open.

 

[Whistlin10Speed]

I swapped the distributor cap and spark plugs today and that seemed to do the trick. I did a spark test and it was getting decent spark but the old cap was pretty worn. I also need to do the rotor as it is showing some where on the contact points but it ran great today and mowed for several hours no issues. Thanks everyone

 

[John P.]

I swapped the distributor cap and spark plugs today and that seemed to do the trick. I did a spark test and it was getting decent spark but the old cap was pretty worn. I also need to do the rotor as it is showing some where on the contact points but it ran great today and mowed for several hours no issues. Thanks everyone

When you replace the rotor, be careful not to lose the small metal clip that holds it snugly to the shaft. If you want a quality rotor, go to NAPA and get a FA67 rotor. It is the same rotor Ford used in the Falcon and Mustang 6-cylinder cars.

 

[Sean in PA]

If it starts again after waiting a while without changing anything, it might be the coil going bad.