MTFCA Forum

Before we try to guess how this is possible I thought the experts here might give me some idea how it is even possible to drive a 1927 T 35 miles and then suddenly it wont run well enough to climb a hill. When I checked to see if the coils were firing I noticed #2 was dead but when I would crank it over by hand #4 was firing 2 times! It was going 1-4-4-3 instead of 1-2-4-3. I pulled the timer off which had come loose and the spring fell out for the roller so I did a road side fix and got the spring to stay tight and put it back together thinking this would fix it but no change. I ended up going home in the 09 that I was driving and getting the trailer to pick up the 27 and give it and its owner a ride home. We are all wiped out from the long day so now that it is safe at its home I am going to help the owner find and fix the problem. At this point I am thinking timer but what other possible problem could it be? Car ran good the first 25 miles. It was also getting hot after the problem started.

Has coil box got old wood in it?

I agree with DHort about the next step i would take if the timer checks out to be OK. Carbon tracking in an old box can give you some weird and frustrating problems.

Good point, owner did tighten things up in the coil box before the trip and could have caused a problem that showed up down the road today. I think it is old wood.

It’s a timer issue.

You said the spring fell out and had to be reattached. You probably have a spring issue again. Maybe the spring arm is bent out too far. Any new, reputable, timer will likely cure your issue.

Update,

I decided to go over and work on the car today and took a spare timer with me. Turned out to be a warn out roller that we missed while looking for the spring under the car that day. It was able to make contact on 2 terminals at the same time so somehow it would fire #4 twice and skip #2. It was a long day and the buyer for my 26 T was calling me to say he was in my driveway some 15 miles away waiting for me. Now this 27 T is back on the road and even gave me a free start after my short test drive and I started it on mag by hand with 1 pull. We should have kept that 27 but they wanted it so bad we had to let them have it. Now the owner knows how to work on another new part of his T which is always a good thing. We also learned how to change a flat on the 09 earlier in the day which was fun for a first time clincher owner. Next time I will check to see if the jack and tire pump are in the car before we drive it 25 miles from home.

My 26 did something like this and yes Adam it was the timer ( ding ding ding). In my case one of the terminals was grounded from carbon. Sure did run crappy.