weird starting wet problem
 

The other day I took my 84 cab to the car wash. I almost never do it. It would not start after it came out, there was lost of water in the engine compartment. After it dried, it did start. Yesterday i left it out at night with a cover on it, there was much condensation on the cover. It would not start~!!. I left the engine cover open to the Sun (warm in sunny southern CA) and volia, it started. The only thing I have recently done is the replacement of the cap and rotor. Any ideas out there????

Next time it happens, check inside your distributor to see if water is getting inside. From my own experience, water can easily enter my distributor since the cap does not make a water tight seal on the distributor, I would find moisture condensing inside my cap and a no start situation like you are having. As a preventative, I put some duct tap on my cap at the joint to keep this from happening again...seems to work.

Cheers,

Joe

Yep, water on the inside of the cap. Use a dry rag. Viola!

Re: weird starting wet problem
 

:eek: :eek: Your joking right!

Been There
 

My '83 SC had a similar problem last fall when I first bought it. Most embarrassing driving into wash it, getting "nice car" compliments, feeling cool until I washed it and chugged away with my car sputtering and spittinghttp://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/blush.gif Once everything dried out it ran like normal.

Turned out my plug wires were shot. I troubleshot them by looking at the engine while it running on a very dark night. You could see sparks flying all over the steel braids (that's not supposed to happen...).

I replaced them with a set of Magnecore wires and haven't had a problem since (just washed it today). I also noticed that it ran much smoother with the new wire set. I thought it was running a little rough prior to the change out but didn't realize how bad it was until I replaced the wires.

Another trick is to seal your distributor cap and plug connectors with di-electric grease (most automotive parts distributors carry it). Rub a little around all places that seal (lip of the distributor cap where it meets the body of the dist, around the lips of your spark plug boots...).

Gordo

Gordo,

I did all that with the di-electric grease etc, thought I nailed it til I got some water under my cap.:(

Cheers,

Joe

for some reason, 84-89 distributor caps condense water inside after a rain. i've seen plenty.

JW,

Any remedies for water under the cap besides duct tape?

Joe