I’m not that familiar with that particular series of Ford but I thought contact points were pretty much gone by 1973 and 1974 when Ford brought the Dura Spark electronic system into service.
Unless the P350 was one of those holdout models given a free pass for a while.
What about ignition timing? Ignition timing with too much retard in it can cause the idle speed to drop. If you don’t have a timing light you could rotate the distributor slightly to increase the idle speed and which could help engine performance.
This is a process you should not get carried away with. Crank too much advance into it by rotating the distributor and engine damage could occur; especially at sustained highway speeds.
I'm not that familiar with that particular series of Ford but I thought contact points were pretty much gone by 1973 and 1974 when Ford brought the Dura Spark electronic system into service.
My 73 Vega was still using points. And I think the Pinto of that era was using points too.
Not all makes including Ford were converted to electronic during that time period. Ford converted some models in 1973 to electronic and finished up in 1974.
GM used contact points through 1974 except for the Cadillac El Dorado which had HEI. By 1975 all GMs had the HEI setup.
VW used contact points clean up into the 1980s, Subaru into the late 70s, and so on. It just took a while for everyone to sort it out and get on board with electronics.
Ok, so I ordered a distributor wrench and retarded the timing and it started right up and ran so much better. The timing was apparently way to advanced. Thank you OK4450!I used a vacuum gauge to adjust the timing since I don’t own a strobe yet. Now, it’s hesitating at high rpm and low and behold the diaphragm on the vacuum advance is shot. I put a fresh vacuum hose on and did the suck tongue test and air pulls right through. So I have to decide if I should try to find just the vacuum advance or whether it’s worth putting a whole new distributor on. The vacuum advance units seem to be hard to find and distributors are under $100. Can I get a new distributor with electronic ignition maybe? I was thinking of getting one of those kits to convert to electronic ignition anyway. The ones with electronic ignition seem to have a plug with 3 wires and points distributors have just 1 wire.
Well, Ice Cream Truck season is over and the truck ran great! Put in a new distributor and changed ignition to electronic and wow! She runs great! It’s nice to have a vacuum advance that works. Timing is good at all rpms now. My only minor issue is a slightly rough idle when I’m at a light with the brake applied, however I think that has to do with the transmission? Someday I’ll have the transmission rebuilt. Now the truck gets to rest for the winter. I filled up the tank, added some dry gas and will start it once or twice a month to let the juices flow
