Indycam

Where the small feed and ground wire goes to be held on by the little nuts ?

So the spark you are seeing is not THE spark ?

I might not bother , you might not have any problem .
Does your motor run strong ?
Do you have a misfire ?
What other than the very small sparks that you are seeing are the symptoms ?

Cosmos99

Ok so I just started the car and saw the sparks at both positive and negative terminals. After about a minute of letting the car idle it started to stumble a run rough. I replaced the distributor belt a few weeks ago as a preventative so I am going to check and see if it broke ( unlikely )....I haven't driven the car since I had it towed home last week from bucking and stalling....

darth

"Are you talking about the plastic caps the cover the coils? If so I have them off to check for sparks. " The rubber caps should be put on as they provide insulation and dielectric grease should be applied between the rubber boot and the area it contacts the coil and not on the metal connector(i.e. the tight snap you speak of loosing will then be retained). The grease fills in any imperfections in the surface of the coil sealing out moisture as well as blocking stray voltages to a certain degree. The boots should fit tightly on the coils?

Indycam

Did you notice the sparks before the belt change ?

Cosmos99

I did not notice sparks but I was getting the christmas tree effect and some slight hesitation and stumbling at 3-4k rmps. When I took out the distributor I found the belt intact but it crumbled in my hands when I removed it. At the same time the secondary coil and cap/rotor were horribly corroded along with the center electrode on the cap was burnt/badly worn. This led me to replacing the caps/rotors and coils. This solved the christmas tree problem and the car ran great for about 1k. I started getting the lights and buzzer then horrible bucking that led to stalling. Towed the car home and took of the coil covers to check the coils and thats when I noticed the arcing. Since I had not changed the coil wires I made a guess that they were the culprit and I found out that they are not.

Indycam

We should maybe go back to the start and try and see whats going on .

"After about a minute of letting the car idle it started to stumble a run rough."
When was the last time you changed the DME relay ?
Do you have a spare one ?

Does the engine run well on just one spark ?
Does it run well on just the other spark ?

When it is doing the "stumble a run rough."
and you reach in and unplug the primary spark switch , what happens ,
when you reach in and unplug the other , what happens ?

LouZ

Following up on Indycam's suggestions, go back to square 1.

Have you checked to make sure that the orientation of the rotors are correct after the dizzy rebuild? You could foul up the plugs in 1k miles.

Cosmos99

Changed out the DME relay with the original one as I bought a new one when I picked up the car, the car ran the same. I will take of the caps tonight when I get off work and see what I find.

Cosmos99

I had some time to look at the caps, rotors, and the distributor belt. Everything is in perfect condition and the timing is correct. I put a little dielectric grease on all the plug wire boots and made sure that everything snapped in with a good click. I started the car and it ran fine except for a quick christmas tree that flashed and went out. A few minutes of running and the car starts stumbling and goes into a lumpy idle which was also a bit low at 750 ( which it has always seem low and weak since I bought the car and the steve wong chip seemed to not help the idle ). I know the ISV won't be causing the arcing at the coils but can it be causing the weak and lumpy idle? Going to jack it up tomorrow and check the ground strap at the starter bolt. Anything else while I'm under her?

Just to let anyone know the cap/rotors are new, DME relay new, coils and coil wires are new. I have not replaced the plug wires because I have not seen evidence that they need replacing as they were replaced 5 years ago by the previous owner which was only 6k miles or so. I am going to pull some of the plugs tomorrow eve just to see what they look like.

Anthony Hutt

I've had similar problems when my car was plagued with the Xmas effect and I changed coils but Xmas effect returned. Bought another set of coils and everything was ok until one day on the freeway the car started hesitating and lost power, my wife was very angry as we were driving to a lunch appointment and finally ended up having the car towed to the garage. At the garage they swapped all relevant electrical items eventually found that the ECU was faulty. I sent it to Steve Wong who was not able to repair it and eventually bought a rebuilt unit from Vertex Auto. My car is running good but xmas effect has come back again. A new challenge for me!

Cosmos99

I would think that the ECU was probably faulty from the voltage spikes that was causing the xmas tree effect on your car...Fix that tree asap! I'm trying my best to fix mine.

Cosmos99

Looks like I found the culprit. I decided to mist the distributors and wires with some water and I got a really nice light show. All of the wire leads are arcing so I am going to order new plugs and wires.

c2dweller

Wondered how you got on?

I've sprayed a mist of water over my dizzy this evening and saw lots of arcing. I'm holding off replacing the leads, but might try the coils.

I did the test becuase it gets a bit jumpy at low rpm when decelerating. I've done the easy stuff like changing the dizzy caps, rotors & plugs and its much better (I think) - just not perfect.

Cheers

Cosmos99

Do yourself a favor and replace all the wires. The arcing is from the insulation in the leads wearing down and not doing its job. After replacing the wires and plugs my car is running absolutely perfect. The job is a pain but well worth the effort.

-Ed

c2dweller

I'm amazed that all the caps seem to arc. I would expect a few to be bad if it were the leads - but not all ... Is this what you saw?