41 lincoln v12

[Guest durhamkurt]

I need a lot of help I inherited a 41 continental when my uncle died It has not run in five years. I replaced the Battery and all cables and new solenoid switch the engine still turns over slow. It will not start I removed the top half of the carb cleaned ot the float chamber and unstuck the float valve and now have that working When I 'pump' the gas linkage I see fuel spraying into the carb I have 'Juice" to the coils but right now no spark I started to take the clip off of what I thought must contain the dist cab (down by the water pumps on each side) but I did not want to pry It did not come off just wobbled a little bit How do I check and clean the points It is a 6volt positive ground system thanks

[19tom40]

Make sure that you have 6 volt cables. The 12 volt cables will not carry enough current to allow the starter to turn over the engine fast enough to start it.

Your distributor has 2 caps, the wire bail keeps them in place. The distributor must be removed from the car to check the points.

[v12lincoln]

Your distributor is the thing between the water pumps, you can flip the bail wires but some take a little force. dont pull the distributor unless you know how to set it up, they are not fun to get set perfect even if you use a distributor machine, Dwell will change when its bolted back on.

Most of the time if its hard starting its the condensors. You can use any condensors from a ford or merc from 36-48, the only things that will be different is the mounting tab, just unsolder the ones off your Lincoln and resolder them on the new ones.

If you cant find them local try Drake ford parts or Sacramento Vintage Ford.

All the Licoln V12s turn over rather slowly, but make sure you have at least 2 guage wire, I run 0-00 welding cable on mine, makes a huge difference.

If you need more help go down to the lincoln forum or send me a PM, I will be glad to help.

[Rusty_OToole]

To work on the distributor of a Ford, Mercury or Lincoln from that era you are supposed to take the whole distributor off and fix it on the bench.

Take the caps off first and leave them hanging by the plug wires.

[TexRiv_63]

A few more thoughts: have you drained all the 5 year old gas and replaced with fresh? You may have to clean the tank and lines if they are varnished up like the carb. Try bypassing the main tank with a small temporary tank direct to the fuel pump. Have you checked to see if you are getting spark to the plugs? If you are I'd try to get it going a little longer before ripping into the distributor.