1982 Town Landau Ignition Timing | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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1982 Town Landau Ignition Timing

  • Thread starter Thread starter northlight
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northlight

northlight

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Thunderbird Year
1982
I have a 1982 Town Landau with the anemic 4.2L V8. All of a sudden I have a crank/no start condition. My question is how to check the ignition timing? There are no timing marks on the crank pulleys and no degree indicator attached to the block. It has a Duraspark II box (the three connector yellow grommet variety).

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The degree indicators will be on the harmonic balancer. There may only be a raised mark on the timing cover. Have you checked for spark? The module might have gone bad.
How many miles are on it? It could also need a timing chain.
Did it die while driving?
 
Car is not driven, it's a project car that sat for almost 20 years. Got it to running pretty well, then the next day crank/no start. Spark is there but weak and yellow. Car has only 46K original miles on it. And no rust.
 
The engine and carb were locked up when I started working on it. I freed those up, installed new plugs and wires, and got it running but the gas tank turned out to be full of rust. Had the sending unit rebuilt and put in a new tank. It ran fine for a while, but seemed to be running very rich. Then one day just crank and no start - it would try to start and briefly run on a few cylinders, but that's all. I replaced the coil even though it tested good. Tested compression and that was OK. Took the carb off and cleaned it. Fuel pump works like a champ. It will not start with ether.
 
Where did you check spark at? If at the coil than it may not be getting out of the distributor. It could also be time for cap, rotor and wires.
 
I have spark at the coil, and spark at the plugs. So I have spark, fuel, and compression - the only unknown is ignition timing. But there are no timing marks on the pulleys and no pointer/degree indicator on the block. If the timing marks are on the harmonic balancer, they are completely inaccessable from either side because the balancer is buried behind the 3 pulleys for the belts (A/C, Alternator, Power Steering). So now I'm wondering if the timing is controlled by the Duraspark box which has gone wonky.
 
Can you post some pictures? The Dura spark does not control timing.
You also need to go over all of the vacuum lines. If the car has been sitting a long time vacuum lines can rot and come off. It won't start with a large vacuum leak.
 
Being a pollution controlled engine with a smog pump (since deleted), this car has so many vacuum lines it's like black spaghetti under the hood. But I guess that's a good place to start.
 
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