Ok, I have a interesting problem. My car was idleing real rough and missing very bad. I looked at the distributor when I got home at night with the car running and noticed ALOT of arcing between the wires. Sparks where jumping everywhere like a light show.

The motor is a 383 with 10:1 compression, therefore I upgrade the stock HEI to a Crane Fireball HI-6. The plug wires are Accel 8mm, custom cut to the car. The spark plugs are also Accels with the U-Groove. I have taken off the distributor and cleaned the terminals, but problem still reoccurs.

The real confusing thing about all this it that it seems to come and go. I drove home from school last night and halfway home the car was terrible, then all of a sudden it seemed to run fire, not nearly as rough.

Any input or hlep would be greatly appreciated. From what I have read I might just need to get all the Accel crap off the car.

 

did you use di-electric grease when you put the new plug wires on. If you didn't try some of that. It helps prevent the type of arcing I think you are describing. I had a similar problem once, where the spark was jumping from the plug wire to the block down near the spark plug and also had the same type of arcing you described and the di-electric grease solved my problem. I will never due another tune-up without the grease ever again.

 

Thank You! I did that and it made a big difference. The problem is not completly fixed, but much much better. I can still see an occasional arc between wires. I may just need to re-route them better. However, the miss seems to be gone and idle quality is much more smoother.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Hey welcome to the boards.

Do you know which type of Accel wires they are? You can buy wires that are manufactured in such a way to prevent crossfire (the term for the arcing between wires). They're more expensive, of course, and I know Accel makes a number of different kinds of plug wires. Look into that, it should solve the rest of your problem.