How incompetent am I?

J

jasco

True Classic
Last week my '82 X started hesitating and missing at low rpms. Not a big problem, but annoying, so today I checked the spark plugs and decided they were full of carbon and should be replaced. I replaced all 4 plugs with the same brand (Champion) and type. I also took off the dist. cap and cleaned the contacts in there. Put it all together again and the thing won't start. I took off one plug wire and cranked it and it doesn't look like I'm getting a spark.:mad2: What could I possibly have screwed up? I checked the plug wires and HT lead and all seem to be OK. I had to take that big black air hose that goes from the air filter to the intake to get at a couple of plugs, but that got replaced and there aren't any wires to it. I did take off the air filter canister so I could clean and paint it and I'm trying to start it without the air filter. That wouldn't change anything would it? I'm flummoxed.:dead: Oh yeah, I had driven it to the store to buy the plugs, so it was running fine before I decided to "improve" it.
 
Last edited:
Did you lose the central carbon post in the distributor cap? It can fall out easy enough and then there will be no spark at the plug leads...

SteveC
 
There is a little spring-loaded thingy in the center of the dist. cap. I cleaned off the contact on the rotor and now it appears the springy thing has been touching it. Maybe it isn't touching it hard enough? Maybe I broke off the carbon element? Replace the dist. cap?
 
Yeah the spring loaded thingy is the carbon post... if its touching the rotor then it's doing the job.

no spark at plug leads... is there any spark from the coil lead? (this would be the next logical step)
 
Maybe you knocked the feed off the ign coil - it's been mentioned before - since it's in the vicinity when you're reaching down to the distributor...
 
The wires that I can see all seem to be pretty firmly attached. Is there something that should hook to the bottom of the coil? There is only one way the dist. cap fits back on, right? See what I mean about incompetence?:confused:
 
make sure plug grounded to check spark, also..

make sure the plug outer treads are grounded or you will now see a spark.
can turn key on to ign and check to se if u get a small spark when to touch the wire from coil to distributer to ground instead.

before I did that though I would try a little starter fluid spray or SMALL amount of gas into air intake.

u absolutely sure no spark?
 
I pulled the plug wire and propped it up by the engine block. I didn't hold on to the wire because I'm afraid of getting a shock. I should have seen a spark between the wire and the engine block, right?
 
CHeck this wire from the coil

I am just covering the easiest thing I cna think of. This wire stumped me for hours after I knocked it off when changing plug wires:





 
Bingo. That was the problem. Thank you for taking the time to take pix! They truly were worth a thousand words. I had gone back to those 2 wires hooked together a couple of times, but never recognized that they hooked up to something besides each other. Now that the car starts, however, it runs worse than ever! The engine misses badly at about 2500-3000 rpm. Idles fine, goes full-throttle ok. This was the problem I was trying to solve by changing the plugs in the first place and now it has gotten much worse. Bah!
 
Double check your spark plug order.

Look for air leaks in the intake (after the Air Flow Meter) and also check to be sure the advance line on the distributor is going to the nipple on the bottom of the throttle body.

My guess is you've got a slight air leak since you removed the large intake hose. It's very easy to get it not-quite-right when reinstalling and also other hoses can dislodge or crack. Any leaks between the AFM and the throttle body will make it run poorly!
 
I would recheck firing order on plug wires first...

Its easy to swap a couple...

Wish I had seen this post earlier also... as I remember Jim Decker's photos from ions ago! I had the same problem once also!
 
JEEZ-A-LOO! I replaced the plugs one at a time just so I would not mix up the wires. There is a hose that goes from an unidentified port on the crankcase(?) up to the intake hose with a vacuum nipple on a plastic connector. The vacuum hose seems to be attached and it wasn't very well connected to start with. I originally found the crankcase hose to be disconnected from the crankcase and it was all cracked and crappy so I replaced it with a chunk of 3/4" heater hose. There was a little spiral filter in the old hose and I dutifully cleaned it and moved it into the new hose. I ordered a new dist. cap and wires today from Vicks. It really seems like an ignition problem to me, not that I'm any kind of judge. I'm tempted to make a sacrifice to the Fiat Gods for disturbing the delicate balance of things in my engine. It gave me two tank-fuls of gas of high speed fun. Some guy in a gorgeous Porsche Boxster pulled up alongside of me and hollered what a cool car I had. That was worth a few days of agony. The learning curve seems to be fairly steep.:dead: gak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top