VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Motor in my 29 not running right

Six weeks ago my dad and I put a new wiring harness in my 29 pickup, all went well so we thought but we got a wire on the ignition in the wrong place and burnt the point and rotor and the distributor cap. I have replaced all of these plus the spark plugs the coil and the spark plug wires and it is still missing when I start it and when I try to increase the rpm's it is even worse. The positive battery cable was also shorted against the frame at the same time. I have no idea what to try next any help would be welcome. Also I do not have the electroloc

From your description of the damage and the way the engine runs (or dosen't run), it sounds like the condenser is shot. It is cheap enough and easy to replace so I would do that next.

Good luck.

ArtM

Thanks ArtM I'll see if I can get one local sat. if not I'll order one from the filling station. will let you know how it goes

ArtM I picked up a new condenser this morning at a local parts store the have been in buisness since the 20's but the first kid i talked to did not know what I was talking about.he got an older guy that laughed at him an went and pulled the books out the kids ask what they were for. poor kid felt sorry for him. But any way the condinser did not fix the problem. welcome any mor ideas. thanks again

Missing can be caused by several things. Try to determine if it is in one cylinder or does it occur in a random pattern? That will help diagnose the problem. If you short out the plugs when the engine is missing and determine whether the missing gets worse or stays the same. If it stays the same when a plug is shorted then it is likely a valve problem. But it could be a plug, plug wire or distributor cap. Possible inside the distributor but not too likely. Also restriction in fuel/air flow to that cylinder.

If random then it is most likely electrical but could be fuel related. Changing parts one at a time will eventually fix the problem and add good spare parts to the tool box.

thanks chipper I will keep at it and try and determine the pattern and then follow your advice from there.

I want to thank every one for their help. while trying to find the problem I noticed that the points did not fire every time. I contacted the filling station about the points and they said I had points for a 35 not for a 29 to 34 they sent the correct set of points and problem solved. the points look very much alike but the ones for the 35 were just a little bigger causing them to short on the distributor case. thanks again.