Yea! So glad this long ordeal is over. I can only imagine how freaking FRUSTRATING it had to have been. I'm sure you're extremely relieved.

Sounds like a combination of things from poor grounds to bad solder connections. Glad you've got it fixed. Now enjoy the drive! Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Folks, AT LAST, I can report that this issue is fully and completely RESOLVED!

And, in total humility, the answer has been suggested repeatedly, and could have been addressed a long time ago.

As I said in my last post, I found a new rotor that decreased the rotor-to-cap gap, and while the intermittent missing seemed to have disappeared as a result, the car would still shut off suddenly and fail to run in gear when thoroughly hot.

So, I removed the distributor and thoroughly cleaned the base and clamp to make the best ground to the block possible. I also disassembled all of the wires internal to the distributor (breaker plate to ground, points to distributor terminal) and reattached the metal ends to new wire with solder. I did the same with the wire from the resistor to the coil. I replaced the wire from the distributor terminal to the coil with a new wire as well.

When I put it all back together, I ran through the usual battery of ignition system tests. As before, the voltage drop to the resistor was about .29V, and the voltage drop from the coil negative to ground was about .18V. Spec is 0.2 and 0.1, respectively. Not seeing any change, I drove to the gas station to fill up as I was nearly empty, but I did not expect any improvement. I decided to run the full test loop I have been using just for grins and when I got to the critical point, everything seemed OK. I got back to the driveway and the car was still idling in gear! I turned the idle in gear down to about 480 RPM and the car idled without a hiccup for ten minutes. Sweet, sweet victory!

So, today I drove it to work and covered about 75 trouble-free miles. Now, finally, I can think about other aspects of this project... but first, I'm just going to enjoy driving it

Thanks for all of your patience, suggestions, wisdom, and encouragement. And, for all of you who suggested it (some of you multiple times)--you're entitled to a hearty "I told you so!"

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

You stated it ran good after bypassing the resister. I would start by replacing the resister, check the points and reset the timing and see how it does. You may have the answer already.

John F

Ballwin, MO

Good to continue on this journey with you. I wondered about the spitting back on snapping the throttle, with all the new fiddling by the shop, and change of rotor, how about resetting the timeing and check if spitting stops, that sounds like retarded timing to me? regards bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

i have nothing to offer but encouragement. this has gone on for a while now but think of the experience gained.

re the rotor gap, that stirs a distant memory from my motorcycle days when people used to introduce a coat button in the ignition lead. i never tried it but was told it made a better spark at the plug.

keep at it

wishing you a successful outcome

stuey

I got the car back on Friday. It was missing so badly on the way home I had to pull over. I bypassed the resistor and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, though I was expecting trouble at any moment.

I really thought the shop was on to something with the whole rotor-to-cap gap thing. I did my own measurements and agree that the gap was excessive. Amazingly, though there is no reference to this on any parts web site, there IS a different rotor available for this distributor, and Autozone sells it. All of the rotors the shop and I had tried were marked with an E on the firing bar. Something about that rang a bell to me. Some web snooping turned up the following info:

"In later GM vehicles with window style caps, there are two different gap specifications available, standard, and emissions.

Standard gaps are set to a spec of .100 and have a +/- tolerance of .030. These rotors have no marking on the end of the firing bar. These gaps have the least resistance of the two designs.

Emissions rotors have a shorter rotor firing bar length, to give a larger gap to bridge, to force the coil to make more spark energy, by having to overcome the larger terminal to tip gap. This was done to have the ignition coil work harder to make more volts from the coil, which ended up marginally increasing spark energy, but ended up just overloading the coil. Attempt was to make ignition output higher so it would help lighting off ever leaner mixtures, doesn't work well. Gaps for these rotors are usually set to .200/.250, and the rotor firing bar is identified with a letter "E". The large gap rotors are not the best for performance applications.

Not all small gap rotors are unmarked, example, NAPA RR167R is made by Echlin, is a short gap rotor, non-emissions, but the NAPA RR169R is a large gap rotor, has the E as well, so...best to measure the tip length and select the longer rotor tip when obtaining a new rotor. In the case of the RR167R, the E is for Echlin, the RR169R, emissions, somewhat confusing if you don't know what is what."

Of course, that was written about GM parts, but the E was there on the Ford rotor, so I thought, could be the same. Well, the non-E Autozone rotor was about 1/8" longer in reach than the others I had tried, so I thought for sure I had found the heart of all of this. Ultimately, even that has not resolved the trouble. I believe that most if not all of the intermittent missing has gone away with the new rotor. Also new is spitback through the carburetor, particularly if I snap the throttle open; I have never ever had that happen before. But, regardless, I can't idle the car in gear when hot, and I even had it shut off once or twice in today's tinkering.

Next, I will replace the primary wiring, one piece at a time, starting with the little ground wire inside the distributor.

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

57 Ford, I just replaced the chain and gears less than 3k miles ago. The timing marks are nice and steady even when it misses, but it's a good thought!

bn, you're right, the only way to be certain about that wire is to replace it. I think. heh.

I hope to go take the car back from the shop tomorrow or, at the lastest, Friday. Then I will replace that wire.

I am also contacting internal combustion engine experts in academia to try to get a handle on how the engine can stand such extremely advanced timing; clearly, the mixture burns very slowly, but why? It may be a critical clue.

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

That internal ground wire can be real tricky. It flexes as it follows the motion of the timing advance plate and over the years the wires can fatigue (break) while the insulation still looks good (if it has insulation). Checking its continuity may show it good while in reality it is bad when it is flexed in a particular position. Be sure and replace it with a wire designed to withstand many cycles of flexing.

I had a similar problem with my 272 in my old truck. It drove me nuts. Tried different dist. carbs etc. advanced the timing a lot nothing helped. I would put the timing light on it and it wouldn't stop blinking but I did notice when it missed the timing mark moved. I didn't think much of it at first. Thought it was caused by the miss it self. The fuel pump started to leak and when I took it off I put my finger in the hole that the fuel pump goes into and felt the timing chain. And noticed the timing chain was very loose. Changed the timing chain and gears and the problem was gone.