'79 California Bus Ignition Miss
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:02 pm
I've nearly worked all of the gremlins out of my new van. It's feeling pretty good. Since I got it, and through all of the repairs I've made, there has been a miss. It is not very consistent (i.e. not rhythmical) but, it is persistent. I believe that it may be related to the problem below.
I have a new cap, rotor, and wires. The issue I'll describe has happened through several new caps though. All of the ignition parts are definitely the correct numbers for my month/year van. Here are the details:
The plugs on the right side have a lot of soot on them while the left side plugs are clean or a nice brown depending on how long they've been in. This is the condition after driving and/or idling. The injectors are all brand new, I've watched each of them spray, and they look good. The fuel lines on each side have been drained a couple of times recently also. It's odd that it is a right/left situation because of the symptoms described below.
The wires are all getting spark. Looking at the posts in the cap, 2 and 4 have a solid black line across them, but 1 and 3 do not. #1 has a track that begins light and then darkens toward the end (in CW motion). #3 only has a thin little track. There are carbon deposits on the new cap just after posts 1 and 3 (again, always talking CW) so, the deposits are between 1 and 4, and also between 3 and 2. The carbon deposits are not track-like, they are powdery, circle-like deposits that can easily be wiped out. The timing is set correctly using both full advance of 40* at 3800 rpm (everything connected) and also verifying 5* ATDC at idle with the DIS connected to itself (Cali model with DVDA).
I borrowed a coil and an Ignition Control Unit from my neighbor and neither made a difference (exact match parts). As far as I can tell, the only thing left to blame is the distributor. Is this something that the distributor can cause?
I have a new cap, rotor, and wires. The issue I'll describe has happened through several new caps though. All of the ignition parts are definitely the correct numbers for my month/year van. Here are the details:
The plugs on the right side have a lot of soot on them while the left side plugs are clean or a nice brown depending on how long they've been in. This is the condition after driving and/or idling. The injectors are all brand new, I've watched each of them spray, and they look good. The fuel lines on each side have been drained a couple of times recently also. It's odd that it is a right/left situation because of the symptoms described below.
The wires are all getting spark. Looking at the posts in the cap, 2 and 4 have a solid black line across them, but 1 and 3 do not. #1 has a track that begins light and then darkens toward the end (in CW motion). #3 only has a thin little track. There are carbon deposits on the new cap just after posts 1 and 3 (again, always talking CW) so, the deposits are between 1 and 4, and also between 3 and 2. The carbon deposits are not track-like, they are powdery, circle-like deposits that can easily be wiped out. The timing is set correctly using both full advance of 40* at 3800 rpm (everything connected) and also verifying 5* ATDC at idle with the DIS connected to itself (Cali model with DVDA).
I borrowed a coil and an Ignition Control Unit from my neighbor and neither made a difference (exact match parts). As far as I can tell, the only thing left to blame is the distributor. Is this something that the distributor can cause?