Don,

Don't fret over the Pertronix addition too much. It really is a 10 minute add and will make even this motor break-in period a more predictable event. I'll make the plug-in wire and bring with. Whether we do it that day or not, it will be a plug-and-play install whenever you are comfortable adding it.

Thanks for the gas offer. Not needed. I got a cool flag coming soon.

This may be a long post, so forgive me in advance... I'd like to explain some things - not to mention the way my brain works; if you'll oblige me the opportunity.

On Saturday I instantly ran through all the possible reasons for the problem - and unfortunately (for you, as it has been for others) I have a tendency to spew all that information out; maybe in person, maybe here. I know, for a fact, I've more than once freaked people out and scared them because I think they think I may think it is all of these things that are happening. I think.

Anecdotally, the Pertronix allowed me to drive my hobbled wagon from southern Oregon all the way to Seattle a few years ago. I'd driven to the FCA Regional in Woodburn and afterward was going to continue down I5 in a caravan and leave them to visit my Mom in Grants Pass. About the time we started to climb the southern mountain passes the car started bucking like a Bronco. If I let my foot off the gas it would run OK, but it made pulling the hills a scary arduous thing. I nursed it to my Mom's with the moral support of the California Falcon Club members staying with me the entire way (still a huge thanks to them for that) and spent my "visit" changing all I could easily change. I thought I had it resolved by pulling the Pertronix and going back to points/condenser/new coil, but I didn't get 10 miles out of town and it was back to bucking with a vengeance! Way worse than before. Here I was on the side of the freeway, freaking a little, so I decided to reinstall the Pertronix. It was all I had to try. The car started (it always did) and off I went, fingers crossed. The issue was still present, but was far better. No worse than it was when I was when heading down. Thankfully, I made it all the way back to Seattle this way. Once I got over the passes and into flatland it was tolerable - but slow going. Once home I was better able to diagnose it as being the carburetor. It was also at this point I learned about the Spark-O-Magic. My carb needed this, but didn't have it. That story's here on the forum somewhere. But the moral of this story is that this Pertronix kit made what was a failing carburetor something that kept me from calling a tow truck. That would have been a very expensive tow.

From what I've heard, and saw, your friends are meticulous mechanics. Would not consider for an instant to detract from their ability. But we're all human and even I catch myself doing or missing something. Two heads are always better than one. Or maybe three or four in this case. Anyway, I learn from everyone.

Oh, OK, another short story about me... sorry.

Though I never got into the automotive field as a professional (something I regret to this day) - I have been working on cars (not just Falcons or Fords) since I was about 11 years old. That's when we moved to a small farm. At the age of 13 or 14 I joined the FFA (Future Farmers of America) in junior high school. In my first year I entered a regional contest which involved many things; from driving tractors, backing up trailers, using forklifts, etc. One contest was a mechanical aptitude test where we were presented with a tractor that the officials had purposefully disabled, removed parts, broken things, etc. We were told to find and write down as many things wrong with the tractor we could in 30 minutes. Out of about 100 entrants I won first place in this contest. Not only did I win - I found more things wrong with the tractor than all of the officials found wrong. Quite the feeling as a kid to have adults wrap their arms over my shoulder and say "Here's the boy who found more wrong with that tractor than we did." Fast-forward to 16 I was hired on at a local auto parts store. My Dad had been buying parts from them for years. It had a machine shop and a repair shop behind it. I learned the ropes in the machine shop and got to drive around delivering parts to all the mechanics around town. I got to know all of them very well and I used every opportunity to soak up a lot of information. I moving to Washington at 19 and got hired where I work today 4 months later as their plant maintenance mechanic. 36 years have past now and I've built, fixed, and repaired just about anything that exists in that place. At 21 I was tasked to build 9 very elaborate fuel-flow testing machines we sold to Ford and Chrysler for $60K a piece in the 80's ($165K in today's money). That was back in the carburetor days. We also have had a small fleet of company vehicles I was responsible for. I've since moved into management, but so wish I'd have stayed on the mechanical side. Way less stress and not that much less money. But I didn't and that's that.

Anyway, just tooting my own horn here. My apologies for that.

Also, being a bit self deprecating here, I know I come across to some (maybe everybody ) as a know-it-all. It's only so I can maintain having the most posts on this forum and for no other reason. Some have accused me of worse. Not saying you are, Don. I think you get me. Though I know in my head I'm just trying to be helpful, I know some have been offended when I try to explain things the way I do. I tend to be verbose. (hint, hint)

OK, so I think I'm done with that part of this post. I hope it came off as intended.

As for your car...

This is not a tight-engine, need for fast-idle issue. If you recall we had the idle screw hard-up against the tension spring and it didn't run. It may require a faster idle to keep from stalling while it breaks in, but we'll know better that when it is running correctly.

Thanks for posting the picture of the distributor springs. Yes, they are pull springs to bring the point plate back against the pull of the vacuum advance. They are also specific in-that their strength works in conjunction with the strength of the vacuum pulling against them to control the rate of spark advance. But there are no weights here, no mechanical advance.

Regarding the vapor lock, I was only expressing my concern as a "future potential" based upon the current heater hose routing. I too doubt it is contributed to the current issue, but knew from experience that the routing of that heater hose could come back to bite you in the future if left as it was.

Valve adjustment should be checked if we rule out all other possible issues. It is solid lifter motor, so something might have slipped.

There are so few places on this motor to induce a vacuum leak. I made a new carburetor base gasket to replace that one you used. I don't think it was leaking, but this one will work better. I had my vacuum gauge with me, but we'll hook it up next time.

I agree "shotgun" troubleshooting is poor troubleshooting. I suspected carburetor and went with that first and found some questionable things. We'll try that first and go on to the next if we need to.

Also, I had a couple yellow-top coils which I tested last night. Both were good so I restored one up in case we need to swap that. I'll bring it.

The carburetor is all checked and closed up. Apart from some screws I tightened more, an aluminum washer I changed to copper (like the original was), the warped plate I flattened, and a complete inspection again - the rest was pristine. It is not certain any of these things I found could have been the cause, but we'll cross our fingers.

I'm game to bring all of this out again this Saturday if you are available. Can't spend the whole day this time, but we can try a lot. Let me know.