Daxed 7 Posted November 12, 2006 Hi all can I pick your brains please. Newly acquired standard 1.6 8 valve. It had a misfire from day one, but only at a steady 60mph in 5th gear. It would accelerate through 60 without a noticeable misfire but trying to keep a constant speed was as rough as hell. This would obviously apply at the relevant constant speed in any gear that equated to just over 3200 RPM. Replaced the dizzy cap, rotor arm and plugs last weekend, fired up straight away. No change at all with the misfire and after 30 miles the engine cut out completely. Took the new dizzy cap off to find a disintegrated central electrode, just bits and dust residue in the cap, no sign of the backing spring whatsoever. Re fitted the old cap and still wouldnt fire, would just occasionally catch on 1 or 2 cylinders. Called the AA, who reckoned it was the wire from the 3 pin plug to the distributor body as when he moved it physically with his hand whilst cranking it affected the quality of the spark as measured with a plug on light thingy. Had a spare 1.6 dizzy and swapped the pick up wiring over but it looks in an even worse state than the original plus the method of fixing it to the distributor was different. Plugged it in to try but no different. Swapped the entire dizzy but the caps have different HT lead connections (female on original male on replacement) and couldnt pick up a new set of suitable leads locally. Peoples thoughts would be good.. Where to get a replacement pick up cable or has anyone got a spare one kicking around? Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
welshpug 1,657 Posted November 12, 2006 one thing to try is to clean the earths, theres one on the alu plate by the coil which goes on to the battery, clean both with emery paper. as you've mentioned moving the dizzy pick up wire affected things so It'd be worth sourcing a new one, either try a scrappie but they'll be as bad or worse than the original but any bosch dizzy from the same era would have the wire IIRC, so maybe some audi's and golfs, even some bimmers! other than that try peugeot or a Bosch/Lucas supplier. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Anthony 1,003 Posted November 13, 2006 In my experience, that cable either causes total spark loss (either permenantly or intermittently) or it works fine - as far as I'm aware it only acts as a switching signal for the ignition amp, and hence I'm not sure how it could give a "weak spark" anyhow? My betting for the 3200rpm misfire would be the AFM btw... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
