B3R Garage: Troublesome Timing Issues

When you begin to near the completion of custom car that you have never done before all of the tiny kinks and imperfections tend to reveal themselves. For my 1984 Mercury Capri, the problem laid in my inability to understand why my Edelbrock 1406 four barrel carburetor would not idle at all.

Why won't my Edelbrock 1406 idle?

Initially, the Mad Scientist and I thought that the only problem with getting the car to quickly start and idle involved timing and distributor adjustment. We actually spent a whole weekend tinkering with the timing adjustments linked to moving the distributor. My neighbor was even so kind enough to provide a timing light so that we could be even more accurate.

However, we still seemed to have issues getting the car to run on its own. It also seemed that the more we tinkered the worse the symptoms got. One of the symptoms was that the car would only idle at 2500 RPMs. This was clearly not good. After adjusting the distributor for ideal timing, the Edelbrock 1406 carburetor started to make a knocking sound. Not only did a knocking sound occur from the carburetor, but the car backfired out of the passenger exhaust and through the carb! Holy fireball!

Instead of going insane repetitively adjusting the distributor, the Mad Scientist and I decided to push the Capri to the side for a few weeks to tinkering with the Maverick project. Coincidently, while rounding up the Maverick project we found the solution for my Capri. The Mad Scientist needed the ford 302 Firing Order to install his new spark plug wires. I then thought that maybe during the multiple times of changing the spark plug wires on the Capri that it would not hurt to check the ’84 Capri’s firing order with the book reference. As it turns out the third and fourth cylinder spark plug wires on the passenger side were swapped. After switching them back, I jumped in the Capri and hit the ignition. Turns out the car started right up and idled on its own! The backfiring was gone, the knock in the Edelbrock carburetor was non-existent, and my problem was solved!

So for future reference or for anyone in need, I have decided to provide the sb Ford 302 Firing order should anyone have a need to use check their timing.

SB Ford 302 Firing Order

1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

Image from allfordmustangs.com