Timing on 850

[JohnWayne]

Hey Fellas... I was working with my distributor on my 850 today. I have heard that your distrib. can actually be off 360 degrees.
Since I don"t have a timing light handy...Does anyone know if she"ll run with the distributor 360 degrees off?
I can get her to start... but she"s ran real sluggish and blowing quite a bit of smoke (not real thick smoke, but enough to notice). Another thing... I can pull one of my plug wires while she is running and it doesn"t change idle speed at all.
I know there"s alot of great ford guru"s here so Thanks in advance!!

 

[Joe)NYC)]

I am no expert on distributors. But, anything that is turned a whole 360 degrees(complete circle) around winds up in exactly the same place you started from. So from this point of view, yes, you would be exactly where you started from and it would be OK. Perhaps I just don't understand your question or point.

 

[old]

360 off is the same as being right on. Now smoke can be a carb set to rich or oil burning. From what your syaing you probley have 2 of the plug wires on right and 2 of them 180 off. What I would do is swithc wires from side to side on the cap and see if you get a not start or fix your problem
Hobby farm

 

[GlenIdaho]

Just to add to what has been said, The distributor cap is marked with a "1" indicating the #i in firing order. The firing order is 1,2, 4,3, beginning at the front of the engine. The distributor turns clockwise, so from the #1 position follow the cap around clockwise installing your wires to cap and appropriate plug.

 

[old]

Glen, you most be lucky to get caps like that. On my 841 the cap isn't marked so I have to do one wire at a time which is also the olny way you should switch out a cap unless you want trouble
Hobby farm

 

[souNdguy]

They run absolutely perfect 360' off! (wink)

Soundguy

 

[GlenIdaho]

Hi Old. I agree with the way to switch out the cap. That certainly is a good policy. I was thinking of the rewiring after a complete rebuild in which everything was removed, refreshed and put back together. Good thing the rebuild kit was made for guys like me.

 

[old]

What was the kit what was known as sailor proof??? Back when I was in the navy they said all machines where built that way so we could never put them back together wrong
Hobby farm