Ignition Problem?
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Junior Member
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 1
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From: Germantown, MD
Ignition Problem?
Ed or Jester,
84ZZ4 drove my car last night to see what was causing the hesitation. He believes it's the ignition. My cap and rotor have been replaced a number of times. Is there a problem that is causing me to burn out my cap and rotor so much. Thanks for any advice.
87SC
84ZZ4 drove my car last night to see what was causing the hesitation. He believes it's the ignition. My cap and rotor have been replaced a number of times. Is there a problem that is causing me to burn out my cap and rotor so much. Thanks for any advice.
87SC
Supreme Member
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 7,072
Likes: 13
From: Philly, PA
Usual culprit is that the the "downstream" part of the ignition is putting excessive strain on the "upstream" parts. Bad wires, bad plugs or plugs that are gapped excessively wide (beyond .045") can cause these kinds of problems.
Also, if the big rubber "donut" and brush under the HEI's coil aren't assembled in the proper order or without the required dielectric grease you can burn out stuff pretty quick.
Double check your timing per factory spec procedure. Runnign the timing retarded will put extra strain on the ignition.
Last thing to check is distributor "phasing" but that's a whole other post and almost never happens with stock, unmolested parts.
Also, if the big rubber "donut" and brush under the HEI's coil aren't assembled in the proper order or without the required dielectric grease you can burn out stuff pretty quick.
Double check your timing per factory spec procedure. Runnign the timing retarded will put extra strain on the ignition.
Last thing to check is distributor "phasing" but that's a whole other post and almost never happens with stock, unmolested parts.
Supreme Member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,411
Likes: 3
From: Rock Hill, SC
Car: 1999 Pontiac T/A Firehawk
Engine: ***'s Engine
Transmission: T56
Well, guess I better butt in here, since I drove the car and made the pronouncement that it was probably an ignition problem.
It has a really "jerky" hesitation sometimes when you stomp on it, almost like really bad cam surge. It doesn't feel anything like a carb bog (I have driven enough q-jets to know what one feels like). Even once you have the pedal all the way to the ground and are accelerating in one gear, it still continues to get occasional surges where it kicks back and the tach twitches. It really is a cam-surge-like feeling, that's the best description I can give.
It's not consistent either. Sometimes when I would stomp on it, it would kick back hard, other times it would just go and simply have little surges higher up in the RPM band. The little surges got worse past about 4000 RPM, almost like the ignition was breaking up.
It really doesn't feel at ALL like the carb though, and I'm unfortunately not good enough with ignition to pinpoint the problem unless it's timing, which I don't think it is (not "base" timing, anyway).
It has a really "jerky" hesitation sometimes when you stomp on it, almost like really bad cam surge. It doesn't feel anything like a carb bog (I have driven enough q-jets to know what one feels like). Even once you have the pedal all the way to the ground and are accelerating in one gear, it still continues to get occasional surges where it kicks back and the tach twitches. It really is a cam-surge-like feeling, that's the best description I can give.
It's not consistent either. Sometimes when I would stomp on it, it would kick back hard, other times it would just go and simply have little surges higher up in the RPM band. The little surges got worse past about 4000 RPM, almost like the ignition was breaking up.
It really doesn't feel at ALL like the carb though, and I'm unfortunately not good enough with ignition to pinpoint the problem unless it's timing, which I don't think it is (not "base" timing, anyway).
Supreme Member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,411
Likes: 3
From: Rock Hill, SC
Car: 1999 Pontiac T/A Firehawk
Engine: ***'s Engine
Transmission: T56
Just a thought...
Since there's only been one response, and it doesn't really appear to be a carb problem--at least I don't think so--could one of the mods move it to the General engine board?
Since there's only been one response, and it doesn't really appear to be a carb problem--at least I don't think so--could one of the mods move it to the General engine board?
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