While this truck has had a fairly accurate restoration, a later 8BA flathead from a ’49-53 Ford was installed instead of the stock 89A. A notable change from the earlier model was the change to a modern style offset distributor instead of the “crab” style mounted at the front of the engine.
This truck had been running rich for a while, and eventually due to an ignition problem, all of the plugs fouled out. Only two weren’t wet, so the last time it ran it was a V2 instead of a V8.
The culprit causing the fouled plugs was a faulty ignition. As part of the restoration, an electronic ignition module had been fitted. Unfortunately this module began to fail, causing cylinders to not fire. As the cylinders fouled the truck ran worse and worse until it stopped running altogether. Unfortunately the modules are non-repairable and the quality of the ones we’ve seen over the past several years has caused us to swap back to the stock points/condenser setup. We sourced some quality NOS points and condenser from Steve’s Antique Auto in Grand Rapids, and along with some wiring repairs and fabrication/replacement of some phenolic insulation, the distributor was rebuilt to factory spec and reinstalled. We installed fresh NGK spark plugs and the truck fired right up.
Because of the constant fouling of the plugs before, the oil pan was overfilled with a mixture of oil and raw gasoline. An oil change took care of this issue.
The gauge package was one of the items that wasn’t restored with the truck. The temp gauge didn’t work, the chrome was iffy, and the paint was flaking off. After a trip to the world-famous Bob’s Speedometer near detroit, our gauges are restored and ready to reinstall.
