Book calls for .014- .016 Always have used .015. Funny thing is last week drove it all weekend and did not have a problem. Started it Sunday, to go to church, and it started acting up.



You think a wider gap would be in store?

1957 Thunderbird

312

HERE IS AN UPDATE...



Disconnected the electric choke wire, just to be sure.

Car fired right up and ran fine.

Let it warm up for a few minutes then backed out and headed around the block.

Put in D1 (low) and pressed lightly on the gas.

Car sputtered and ran real rough.

Pressed further downward it smoothed out a bit.

Put into D2 and smoothed out.

Pressed on gas and it began to sputter and lunge a bit.

Let off gas and pressed again slowly and it was fine.

Drove up the street and began to speed up.

It started to sputter again so I pressed harder, it continued to sputter only more aggressively.

Backed off gas and it smoothed right out.

Pressed down slowly and it seemed to be OK.

Pulled back into garage and put into park.

Stepped on gas and it sputtered again.

Let off and it idled just fine....



Checked fuel filter and it still is clean. Does this help anyone pinpoint a direction I might head?



Appreciate your help as always.

1957 Thunderbird

312

Just a suggestion.Do you have a known good coil to try and the same with the fuel pump?I believe there was a similar problem with someone elses car back a few posts and turned out to be the condensor in the distributor.I would not touch the point gap if its at .015.Have you checked the point gap?

  

Hi, not sure what carb youre running but have you checked if accelerator pump is working correctly? worth checking among other things. Good luck. best regards bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

rods just a thought a mate of mine had nothing but trouble with his 52 cussy couldn,t find out what was wrong with it in the end discovered that the engine mounts were to old and were moving causing the bolt coming out of the dizzy with the wire to the coil touching the fire wall and shorting the engine out making it miss every time that you started to drive faster

    RAY. Y,S ALWAYS

in my last post it should have been 56 cussy not a 52 cussy not looking at the keyboard does this to you not old a bit...........

    RAY. Y,S ALWAYS

Now that you mention it, I remember the condenser post as well. I have an extra one, may as well try it out when I recheck the point gap... I checked the pump with the last round of problems and it was working fine (mechanical) Do not have another coil but might see about replacing it anyway.... Thanks

1957 Thunderbird

312

The carb was completely rebuilt in May so it should not be it but it never hurts to check.!

1957 Thunderbird

312

Since I have had such crazy and weird things go wrong (like a 2 cent washer) I will trace all the wires back and make sure all sound...



I WILL CONQUER THIS GREMLIN!

1957 Thunderbird

312

Rods.  Did you disconnect the choke wire and rule that out?  Your description of the problem still sounds like its ignition related and voltage to the coil can still be the source of what you’re looking for.  It’s not unusual for an ignition system to slowly degrade until the weak link in the system creates problems.  Most of the time, reducing the spark plug gap and seeing an improvement in performance will point to a degrading or not up to snuff ignition system.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)