With the trans on the bench, putting a dial indicator on the imput shaft and turning the output would tell the runout. I have a hard time believing you could bottom that enough to warp it and still shift the car.

So, the carb. I would feel that as a miss, but a light miss could feel like a vibration. I've had two occasions with the Edelbrock 600 where the float bowls were clean, but the needle/seat combination was blocked from above. One was a shaved piece of fuel hose, just a sliver, laying across the opening. It came and went, and drove me crazy. Pull the top off, remove the floats, needle/seat, and use pressure air to blow thru the fuel inlet. Grasping at straws here.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Can you reinstall the old carb and/or intake?


Lawrenceville, GA

Check the plug wires again, AND make certain you have no shorts or cross firing. Start it with the hood open after dark and look everywhere for sparks in the wrong place. Some times you can hear the plug arc to ground as well as see it.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

First, thanks for all your replies. I appreciate the great advice!

The distributor was given a new set of points and condenser by a local shop a few years ago. New wires were installed at that time as well. The car has only been driven on short test runs since then. I hadn't given much thought to the points, condenser, rotor, and cap as they were all new but I will go through it again in case there is a wrong adjustment or something is wrong inside the distributor.

The old 2 barrel carb is gone. I do have the manifold still so I could scrounge up a carb and try it if all else fails.

My next step was to remove the trans completely and check the input shaft. While it's out, I'll replace the pilot bearing and the throw out bearing, just in case either of those are bad. The trans is a used trans out of an 87 Mustang. A local shop sourced the trans and installed it so I never saw it out before it went in the car. I will now.

I did just last week, take the carb off and completely disassembled it and cleaned it out thoroughly (every passage was cleaned and checked). It doesn't appear to be dirt in the carb. I was wondering if there is a setting I am missing on the carb that I need to adjust, but that may not be the case.

I will re-check all the wires again.

Again, thanks!

If you've got a dwell meter, try that first. Points, condensers, rotors and wires can deteriorate over time regardless of mileage. If the dwell is good both at idle and up around 3000 rpm, it tells you the points are working. Then move on to Frank's suggestion on pulling the wires. I had a coil/cap wire that slid out, burned a hole thru the cap, and couldn't find it till I tried looking in the dark. So Frank's right on about that. All this is easier than pulling the trans.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Suppliers of T5 conversion kits are adamant that the bell housing be dialed in before the trans is installed.  You mentioned that the vibration occurs with the clutch both in and out so that may make my point irrelevant, I'm not sure.  If you are pulling the trans anyway it wouldn't hurt to verify that the bell housing is centered to T5 specs. Google "dialing in a bell housing", there is a lot of help there.   Good luck.


Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

Mike   Did you ever figure out your vibration?  I've been battling the same problem all summer with my 56 312 and T5.  Although I had put about 3,000 miles on mine without any problems after the install. I first had a terrible vibration immediately after changing oil and adding Lucas oil stabilizer.  Pegged an 80 psi gauge. could not hold on to the shifter handle of the transmission it vibrated so bad.  Drained the oil twice to flush out the Lucas and now have 50 psi on the oil gauge but still have a slight vibration on the shifter handle above about 1500 RPM only with the clutch engaged even in neutral. Going crazy trying to figure this out.   Dave V

SE Wis

Did you run the engine with the newly balanced flywheel and pressure-plate/clutch(centered)  in place and STILL have vibration?





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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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Well this may seem dumb, but did you check the sparkplug wires for cross firing or wrong order?

what type of vacume advance do you have,early type with the nut on the end may have a weak spring causing early advance,they can easly be changed with small washers so as to slow initial low load advance. later typ had a alen screw insid the vacume tube that can change advance rate. hd a 302 with holey 4v that had a vibration like you describe and the isue turned out to be to much advance at part throtel .the other isue could be the cent weights under the point plate. early cent advance dist used a ball bearing plate actuated by the vacume advance ,they would become stickey,and need cleaning and new lite grease. just some more to think about ,sounds like you have had more than your share of greaf. it will probly turn out to be something simple. good luck