Weird engine issue....
 

My '71 E is having some issues with one of it's cylinders. #3 hasn't been running lately, so I tried new plugs, checked for spark, cleaned the carbs...and then something odd happened. I pulled the plug wire while the engine was running to make sure it still had spark, it did, so I went to plug it back in. As I was sliding the wire back into the plug hole, I heard a tick tick tick and the idle went up...the cylinder was running, so plugged it in fully and though I had it fixed. I shut the car off, then start it again, to make sure...but the cylinder wouldn't run. I tried the plug wire again, and nothing. It has newer plug wires, dizzy and compression is good.
Any ideas of what could be going on?

sounds like a bad plug wire. Did you keep your old set for testing purposes?

When a wire is arcing it makes a ticking sound. It could be that the wire was arcing and you burnt your points or rotor.

Thanks guys!
I didn't keep the old wires.....oops.
Is it obvious if I burnt the points? What would they look like? And how could I check the rotor?

I can hear the ticking when the engine is idling, so this means that I have and arching wire/point? Some of the other cylinders have been erratic too??

The points, if bad, will have either a burned look to one or both of the contacts, or a transfer of metal from one contact to another, or the rub block will be worn down past its limit, resulting in a too narrow gap. You can check this w/ a dwell meter.

Your rotor should have a nice shiny contact @ its end and @ the center. These can be cleaned w/ some LIGHT sanding, being careful not to increase the gap between the rotor and cap. Same is true w/ the cap. The contacts inside should be clean and the cap should have no cracks or evidence of carbon tracking.

You can check the resistance on the wires, and you can try wetting them w/ a spray water bottle and seeing if there is any arcing (in a dark environment) or any sputtering.

Could some one tell me if all this looks OK?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1249069889.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1249069926.jpg

I don't see any points in the pic above. In any event, you would have issues with all 6 cylinders were it a points problem.

If you don't have a spare wire, try swapping #2 and #3 wires (at both ends, of course) and see if the problem follows the wire.

Also, it looks like there's no seal where the wires go into the distributor. Seems to me that would eventaully be a vector for all sorts of unwanted debris/biologicals.

Errrr, you don't have points. You have an aftermarket optical trigger.

Get back to basics - do a resistance check on the plug wire/try swapping a wire from another cylinder. If your wire is good and you're getting spark, then it is time to check compression on the cylinder.

OK, I changed the wires from #2 and #3, the engine wouldn't even idle right and back fired a lot. I put them back in there correct positions, and it idled, but #2 was not running now.....so I tried pulling the plug wire, like I did with #3: I unplugged the wire from the plug end, and positioned it a mm or two from the top of the plug, then moved it around the hole, grounding it on the side of the plug hole(make sense?). I could hear the rpm's go up as the spark connected with the plug, then I put the wire back onto the plug, and it ran great. So the engine is running pretty good right now, until it decides to stop sending spark to #2 or #3 again.......

Now another issue, when I took #5 plug out when I swapped in new plugs, it was black, put another one in, and it is now black too...oil?(maybe another thread)

black and wet=oil
black from carbon = rich

It's black, like thick black carbon, but I just got the carbs tuned...?

Yours is the Motormeister engine from another thread I was reading today?

You really need to do a compression and leakdown test before attempting to get the engine to run right. Need to know what you're working with. Get those numbers posted up and we can go from there.

your cap & rotor look new, and from your diagnosis, I still think you have a bad plug wire. Pick up a set of Magnecors. If your plugs are different colors, it could be a host of different issues.