Yippee !!! my parts finnally showed up and te weather warmed up enough for me to work out side So I got my comet up and running for the first time. ( it was delivered on a flat bed to my house . I took for a spin around the block a fewwdozen times and luv it .Its drives great .and has plenty get up and go for a 250 six . Installing the new tank went real fast . then I rebuilt the carb and intsalled the new Distributor and replaced all the brake lines and one wheel cylinder .and the two front rubber hoses . But I have a few questions if any of you out there could help I would be very appreciated . all the vacuum lines were unhooked when I got it so i am not totally sure where they all go . the car is a 1974 Comet 250 six cyl with A/t trans and No a/c I have the vacume advance line hooked direct to the carb where it says Dist and I dont know where the retard line goes I have a ported vacuum switch that has two lines availaible next to the thermostat hosing what should go there ?. there also appears to be to vacuum line that come out of the fire wall one is Blk with a white stripe what are those for ? I also have a question about the throttle selinoide my car idle's better with it unplugged .If I plug it in it idles about two hunderd RPMsS to fast does that meane that the selinode is bad ?
Danielle, Congrats on getting it running. That has to feel great. I have never dealt with a six in one of these cars so I am sure that someone else can offer better help than I can. What I will say about any 1974 car that I have ever messed around with is that they had some of the darkest voodoo emissions equipment happening at that time. I mean that all of the sudden because of all the additional stuff there, performance and gas mileage went down, and somehow the car polluted less while burning more gas?!? I usually did my best to eliminate as much as possible. If your car is emissions-inspection-exempt, you can probably simplify some items underhood and actually have the car perform better. My goal was to make the engine look like it was from 1968 with the vacuum hose routing, etc. Keep the vacuum hose from the carb to the distributor as is and forget the retard line, just leave it open to atmosphere. Any retarding of the timing will make it run worse. Compression was dropped a bit and it will want more ignition timing than they gave them from the factory. Try and dial in a couple more degrees of ignition timing and see if the motor likes it. You might be able to get away with 4 more degrees than the stock setting. If it knocks while accelerating, you have gone too far. Another good thing for all early Ford motors that I have had is to get the ignition advance curve in earlier. There are weights in the distributor, and one has a heavy spring on it and the other a lighter spring. If you swap to two of the lighter springs, it will help a lot. Stay with Ford springs. There are some ultra-light springs at speed shops. They are made for drag racing and allow the advance to happen too quick for daily driving. Again, if it knocks, you have advanced the timing too much, but what I have outlined here is usually pretty safe. The timing curves from the factory were very conservative. Solenoid on the carb? ... someone else needs to chime in here. Unless it is some obscure piece of emissions stuff, it might be to help prevent the motor from dying during hard braking. Vacuum line coming out the firewall? ... not sure ... something for the heater controls? Best of luck with the continued progress.
...glad to see you got it up and running. ...was nice to see you fixed the brakes first sometimes it will do better after you drive it a little. i had a stuck valve on #5 in a 6 cyl. once. i drove it about 75 miles (over 2 wks.) and one day i came out and fired it up and it was hitting on all 6. for the vac. hoses...i would plug all but the dist., then as i find something not working...run it down. ...frank...:Handshake
Timing which Way ? Thank you captain Comet for your help . I agree about all the Vodoo stuff in the early 70s they were just throwing stuff up in the air and hoping it would stick . OK on the timing - the book says 6 degrees Before TDC so should I go 8 degrees Before or 4 degrees before ???? Which way should I go On the vacuum line Stuff -Advance GOOD / Retard Bad !! I can do that no problem . I have an extra Dist so this summer I will mess with the springs Thats a great tip thank you so Much EGR will get blocked off with a small piece of tin behind it so no can see it . I figured out how to adjust the selinoide so I will re hook it up and adjust it back out a little. The book says its to keep the car from Dieseling when hot Right now its way to cold up here in Maine to test that theory. Now for the last piece of info, the air cleaner has a little flap that goes up and down to direct warm air when its cold Does that vacuum line go to the Ported Vacuum switch that next to the thermostat ???? As for the the Vacuum lines coming out of the fire wall I think they must have something to do ith the Heater Valve Can anybuddy confirm that ? Right now the COLD /WARM switch on the dash wont move up and down Does it need vacuum to it or do you think the cable is froze up .??? Hello Frank * Thanks for saying Hi . I luv my comet and can hardly wait to get it registered so I can legally drive it around town I will post a few pics after I get it cleaned up a bit . Thank you every one for your help Danielle
...on the ...COLD/WARM...switch... trace the cable down and unhook the end on the box.(i think it will be on the front of the box) then see if it will work in/out, if not it's the cable frozen up. if it does it is the flap in the box. you may need this... ...Frank...(thanks Dennis)
Danielle, If the stock spec is 6 BTDC, I would try 8, 10, and 12 BTDC and see what it seems to like best. Vacuum line on the air filter? ... I don't remember one being on mine, but that was 15 years ago. You probably do have a little filter that has a hose run to the valve cover for the EGR system though. I wouldn't just block the EGR system. It needs to breathe somehow (filter in the valve cover?). If you just cap it I believe you may end up with the crankcase getting pressurized and then oil coming out of the dipstick, etc.
