# Ford 1953 NAA Jubilee starting soulution



## Jedidiah (Jan 5, 2016)

My Ford Jubilee wouldn't start well or even idle well and sometimes wouldn't start at all. It would always stall when increasing speed. I always came around to diagnosis that the points had problems. I was right, but the points / the gap / the timing ... all this was not really where the problem was. It was in the Distributor shaft. It was wobbling, causing erratic spark, even after putting in a new brass bushing at the top. Ford built this with only one replaceable bushing in the Dist. body. It seemed that the bottom of the shaft was where the play was. So after many hours and days of trying everything else I finally decided to add a custom bushing into the lower part of the Dist. body. I used to work in a machine shop and I have a small hobby lathe. I stripped the distributor down to just the alum. casting and bored out the bottom of it so I could put in an additional brass bushing just like the one in the top... only I cut it a little shorter (1").
This solved the problem, Yee...Ha !
This saved me $260.00 (buying a new dist.) and I have the satisfaction of "doing it myself".
Why didn't Ford put a lower, good brass bearing in this in the first place? *Comments please*
I hope this helps someone out there who just cannot find the problem with their 1953 Ford Tractor.

Jerry, In Northern Michigan

P.S. A detailed diagram/image to describe/show the whole procedure follows !


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## ben70b (Aug 29, 2012)

Nice to know jerry, my neighbor is looking for a '53 jubilee, 1953 is the year he was born and his grandpa had one when he was a kid. I will keep this in mind if he ever finds one


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

Howdy Jedidiah,

Welcome back, and thank you for the excellent post/information.


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## trub (Feb 22, 2018)

Jedidiah said:


> My Ford Jubilee wouldn't start well or even idle well and sometimes wouldn't start at all. It would always stall when increasing speed. I always came around to diagnosis that the points had problems. I was right, but the points / the gap / the timing ... all this was not really where the problem was. It was in the Distributor shaft. It was wobbling, causing erratic spark, even after putting in a new brass bushing at the top. Ford built this with only one replaceable bushing in the Dist. body. It seemed that the bottom of the shaft was where the play was. So after many hours and days of trying everything else I finally decided to add a custom bushing into the lower part of the Dist. body. I used to work in a machine shop and I have a small hobby lathe. I stripped the distributor down to just the alum. casting and bored out the bottom of it so I could put in an additional brass bushing just like the one in the top... only I cut it a little shorter (1").
> This solved the problem, Yee...Ha !
> This saved me $260.00 (buying a new dist.) and I have the satisfaction of "doing it myself".
> Why didn't Ford put a lower, good brass bearing in this in the first place? *Comments please*
> ...


Greetings Jedidiah ,thank you for taking the time to post Solution great work. Do you modify these distributors for others?


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## raylinkz (May 28, 2010)

I believe I have the same issue with my Jubilee. It will start, runs lousy for a while, will not rev up and finally stalls and not start again until it gets cold. I haven't checked the distributor and don't have a lathe but would be interested in a follow-up with the detailed diagram to show the procedure. Many thanks in advance.


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## RC Wells (Dec 26, 2008)

Checking the distributor for runout is real easy. Pull the cap, remove the rotor and press the shaft from side to side. If it moves it needs the rebuild of the bushings. If it is stable, the problem with cold start and warm stall will be the condenser and/or coil have moisture trapped that steams and shorts one or both.

If you open the PDF in the original post it illustrates the bushing rebuild.


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