misfiring mk 1 escort 1972
Discussion
bought a 1972 mk 1 escort, have reset idle and fuel mixture tho once being driven misfires a lot although stil driveable. Many garages think it the dynamo tho the one we ordered appears not to match the one on the car, then someone thinks theres a problem with the regulator. I thought the regulator purely for regulating power to the battery and not affecting the HT leads or spark plugs etc, would a faulty coil affect sparking to plugs or leads, please advise
It could be the coil breaking down. Good old crossflows have a ballast resistor to power the coil when the engine is running (supplies 6v to the terminal). This is bypassed when the starter is turning, making the full 12v to the coil to aid starting. Make sure that your coil is the correct one or, if an aftermarket 12v one, that the ballast resistor has been removed. (the resistor is just a length of resistance wire, so not immediately obvious)
Check the Motorcraft distributor bearings are not worn the points cam wobbles around causing the points dwell to be all over the show this was a known issue with Motorcraft dizzy's back in the day you will have ignition timing errors too, worth checking 1st then like mentioned if this checks out rotor arm, dizzy cap, leads spark plugs and coil need checking out , cars from this era are very basic machines and shouldn't give you too much aggro fixing
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