Ford 8N Stuck - Sort Of....

[Anonymous-0]

My 8N is currently in the process of a mostly cosmetic restoration. It was rebuilt a couple of years ago before I bought it and ran great. Well since I've had it torn apart, I'll occasionally crank it with the hand crank a turn or two. Well, when I went to crank it today it turns easily but then stops after maybe a quarter turn. I removed the starter the other day, so I put a large screwdriver in the hole, and back it up. Well, it stops at a different spot when I do this. I pulled the head and everything looks OK. I noticed when I crank it forward it stops with all four pistons near the middle of the cylinders. When I crank it backwards, it stops after just a quarter turn where the front and back pistons are at the top and the middle two are at the bottom. Whats Up?

 

[CENTAUR]

You did not say if you disengaged the clutch to seperate the engine.Just a thought. CENTAUR

 

[Anonymous-0]

While I was sitting here typing it hit me like a ton of bricks. I removed the front mount distributor tonight, and screwed the 2 bolts back in. You guessed it - when I screwed the bolts back in, they went in farther and limit/interfere with the motion of the gear that runs the distributor. Sure enough, I go outside and loosen the distributor bolts and now the engine cranks freely. I almost fell down laughing!

 

[Leland]

when it got tight are you sure it just was not hitting the compression stroke