Weird Engine Problem

[7391417]

The engine is a 73 1.7L, Runs real strong, high compression. Engine has always run real strong, recently though it will skip a beat or two between 2500 - 3500 randomly, and also will idle rough randomly. I know that it is the #3 cylinder that is doing this. Here is the weird part, if I take the spark plug wire off of the #3 cylinder and put it back on it will run just fine for another 100 miles or so then it will start doing it again. Spark plugs, cap, rotor all the ignition goodies are less than a year old except the coil, and the igntion is of the pointless variety. Thanks for any help on this.

[rich]

Replace the wire. I've purchased new wires and had bad ones right out of the box.

[Jim Osborn]

My friend had a problem similar to yours. Check the fuel injection points in the distributor. That solved that problem. The manual says they need to be adjusted every 50,000 miles

[7391417]

I found the time today to dig into the engine compartment and go through everything. Turns out the connector harness that plugs into the side of the distributor was loose so I was sporadically losing the connection due to the vibration. Runs as smooth as ever now!
It is almost always something little.
Thanks for all of your input.