MTFCA Forum

I lost a cylinder after breakfast the other day. I suspected a terminal had loosened from a plug or the timer or maybe just a dirty plug. Moving the T from garage to shop to fix it today one cylinder became very loud. Exhaust leak? This is just as it appeared when I opened the hood. The parts were laid out as if the elves had done it.
The take apart Champion had replaced one of the Motorcrafts that went bad several years ago. Since this has never happened to me I can only suspect it wasn't tightened properly then. It has worked fine with occasional cleaning for several thousand miles. After cleaning and assembly it gave me a free start and ran fine.
I can't explain why or when the terminal nut came off in addition to the plug coming apart.
New problems are a pleasant change.
Rich

A little love is all she wants Rich ! My TT split two valve stems sitting in the shop for a couple days. One front and one rear. Attention is all they want? Needy little tin cans that get their feelings hurt once in a while. Cant help but like em.

What a very odd thing to happen! It seems amazing that the parts could become disassembled like that and just as odd that they stayed with you. Luck was with you.

Paul

You're very lucky that parts didn't fall into the engine and cause damage.

Lucky too that the porcelain was not blasted into the hood!
Allan from down under.

Sometimes you just plain get lucky! We were in the middle of Washington State one time on a national tour when a friends mag just quit suddenly- we pulled the mag post to check things out, and laying there in plain sight on the contact was the pin out of his generator gear!

Glad that Ford layed out the issue for you!

I've had plugs come apart like that. They're tricky. If you don't get the collar tight enough the plug comes apart or loosens up and leaks. If you get it too tight the porcelain breaks.

Well it was a odd event and lucky for me that no damage or loss of parts occurred. From the sound it made at the end I believe the terminal was firing the mixture coming out of the plug base. It was close enough to spark. If it wasn't for a variety of happenings and strange events the T fun might get boring.
Thanks for the comments.
Rich