I was under the car yesterday and decided to check on the condition of my cap/rotor. PO said he replaced not long ago. Spark plug wires new as well. So I take off the cap and whoa...it sure is messy under there.. It looks like he had tightened the cap down too tight so that the rotor had actually started to melt away into the cap. Interesting. I take the cap and rotor off for closer look and it looks like the cap wasn't centered over the rotor either. So there is a little groove worn into the cap that is not centered over the little carbon button in the middle of the cap. And the burn marks electrodes on the inside of the cap are all along the bottom of the electrode where it is molded into the plastic. So, i cleaned it up and will now see if it makes any difference. Damn PO!!! Is there anything I can spray on the distributor (under the cap area) to clean all the dirt and crap away with? One more thing...I checked to see if there were any sparks with car running in the dark. I saw sparks at all cylinders. Very small and faint right at where the wire clips into the plug. Is that ok?

 

I sprayed some wd40 on mine when I got it, everything was quite rusted.

Sounds like you need a whole new cap and rotor button which is not expensive.

 

PB Blaster works well. I used it on my cap and rotor on my s-10's 2.8L. I'd go with Dale on the new though. It's cheap enough.

 

you shouldn't see any sparks at all. Where were they sparking to. do the wires cover the plug completely? Mine seat all the down over the plugs, plus the heat covers, so the connection is buried deep in rubber

If they sparking to somewhere other than the gap in the sparkplug, you're loosing ignition spark