The round cylinder is the condenser The feeler gauge is setting the gap between the points. The points open and close as the center shaft rotates. There should be a little block on the points that rubs on the peaks of the shaft. In the center is where your rotor attaches. There should be a metal tab on the rotor that makes contact with a pin at the center of the distributor cap. Micah
its your eyes! the negative wire is pointing down on the post of the coil. Jeb, this is some pretty old school stuff. its simple just need to get educated on what it is. first thing i would do is by a pertronix electronic ignition conversion. this replaces the pionts which are a wear item with electrics that dont wear out. the instructions with a pertronix good and should get you through the job. heres the kit that will work for you. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-1261/overview/make/ford you may need to replace the coil. this is tricky and can get complex. if you put a pertronix coil in, it requires the resistor wire to be bypassed. this is located under the dash and requires some automotive electrical knowledge. to keep things simple i would just get stock replacement coil from the autoparts store. i feel the pertronix alone will fix and get your car running. after you install the pertronix is installed you should check and set the ignition timing. again this is a little advanced for a first timer. i would find someone who has a timing light and can show you how to set the timing.
oh man, you guys are amazing. sorry for my silence, but i was doing some research and here's where i'm at... i went to napa and got a coil (stock, i think, but see pic), points and a condenser. i installed all 3 and then tried to start things up. the battery was tired so i jumped it, then tried again. pretty much back to square one. makes like it wants to start, but never catches. i tried adjusting the points twice though, admittedly, without a feeler gauge. just trying to keep the spacing minimal, but there, on the peaks of the shaft (as micah stated above). no luck. i did not confirm that the rotor rotates as directed above, as i wasn't sure i could crank it fully with that distributor cap off, but i did do so little by little to get the do the adj on the points at the right spot on the shaft, and it was rotating as i did that just so. anyway, that's where i'm at. one thing that seems to be new (that is, a new issue), is that as i was cranking it to get it to start, after replacing/adjusting as described above, gasoline (or so i assume) blew out of the carburetor. i have the air filter off the top (to pour a bit of gasoline in it from before when i was trying to ensure it wasn't a fuel thing) and hadn't yet replaced it. anyway, it looks like a whale's blow hole in the sense that it appears to be a little liquid being forced up by air. as i look at the carb, it looks like it's leaking, tho i'm not sure if that's just from the gas coming out of the top. such is life when you get in too deep, i guess. any thoughts would, as always, be appreciated.
BTW, the gas spout thing isn't continuous, just a spurt here and there. don't want you all thinking i've created a gasoline 'old faithful', yellowstone-style.
if it's popping back through the carb you're on the right track. now sounds like the plugs are fouled...
sweet. okay, so, for argument's sake, let's assume i don't know what plugs are (ridiculous, i know, but hypothetically...), is it possible you could be a bit more specific..??
Yeah plugs won't hurt... A bad carb can cause fouled spark plugs, pull the center two and look for heavy deposits... Something like picture #3 or #11 in this link is common with a overly rich carb on a inline engine... http://mastercams.co.za/checking-fuel-distributions-by-spark-plug-reading.html
ahhh...okay, i'll check those out and likely replace. assuming for a moment that this is the issue, will it resolve the gas-sputtering carburetor? or is that another issue altogether? thank you...
the spark plugs get fouled from all the cranking with out a good spark happening to burn off the gas. this can be cleared by holding the throttle to the floor while your cranking the motor. once the motor starts immediately release the throttle pedal. it possible for the gas to spurt back out the carburetor when the motor stops cranking. if its spitting out while its cranking then you may have another problem. an old trick to setting the gap on points is to use a the flap of a match book as the "feeler gauge" for the point gap. in this day and age people dont carry match books any more. but a single ply card board like the backing from a note pad should work. a dwell meter will be needed to verify the proper setting for the points. now changing points will change timing and will need to be reset to run optimally. keep asking questions and you will keep getting good answers.
