ive got a really bad misfire that has developed and i cant figure out what is causing it. ive replaced coil, coil to distributor wire, plugs, rotor button and distributor cap. the plug wires look pretty new, and noone around me has them. also checked compression, and im getting 130-150. im at a loss as to why its missing so much

lif lid at night in pitch black and watch engine running see if any sparks seen jumping about !

 

Points or electronic ignition? How is shaft side play in dist ?

its points. and ill check the shaft in the morning. i went to put sea foam through it too, and also found that my choke had lost a snap ring, so it was stuck wide open. fixed that and put about a half can of sea foam in the gas, then fed the rest through the intake. seems to idle much better, but im pretty sure thats only due to the choke. still missing really badly. i have new plug wires coming in that i should be able to pick up tomorrow

Is the miss rhythmic (one dead cyl) or is it just sputtering?  Points distributors are kinda rare here, are you sure its points? The Hitachi distys are well known for shaft play, the typical symptom is a jumping tach. Since your waiting for parts theres no reason not to check for vac leaks, and re-torque your carb mounting bolts.

the miss is completely random. and yes im pretty sure its points. only wires going into the distributor are the main coil wire and the possitive terminal from the coil. its the hitachi distribitor that clips on instead of screws. the shaft play is only maybe a quarter to a half millimeter so i dont see that as being a problem. and as i expected, new plug wires did nothing. and i found one vac leak last night, just a t-joint in a hose that had one side open. plugged it and it sounded a bit better, but a minimal improvement overall. for the carb bolts, whats the torque? i cant find a book, and its a weber 2 barrel.

If sounds to me like you have the hitachi disty with the module under the cap. If you have points (it probably wouldnt be stock) then you should check them and adjust them. Make sure your timing is close to specs.

The carb bolts just need to be tight. Keep checking for vac leaks, this would include the intake manifold gaskets, egr valve, and the brake booster. Listen for a hiss, carefully spray around with carb cleaner etc. for safety reasons carb cleaner is frowned upon but it works, and it evaporates quickly.

had a friend call me and explain how all the parts of the distributor work, and it looks like points most definitely the problem. i was reading another thread about the distributors and soneone mentioned that the ea81 should be electronic instead of points? my car is an 88 GL with an unknown year of engine. half of the crap in the engine bay looks gery rigged to some extent. if most of the ea81 engines were electronic and mine has points, what car should i tell parts stores when im looking for engine parts

for some reason i cant upload any pictures, so when i figure that out youll see some

Edited August 25, 201510 yr by zmarrott

its was the damn points. dug down into the distributor to find royally fucked up contact on it. ten miles away for a 5 dollar part.