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 Post subject: Water!
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 7:02 pm 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:07 am
Posts: 2132
Location: SF Bay Area
Car Model: 67 dart 2 door hardtop
My slant runs great. I rewired the entire engine compartment wiring, some under the dash. The other day it rained. Suddenly, my slant had a misfire, idling rough. I checked under the hood, no vacuum lines off, plug wires solidly in place, alt. wire, etc. all as should be, my wiring job was sound, no exposed wires, everything grounded well, including the block. Question: where would water accumulate and create a short, assuming everything was wired correctly? When I started her up, she ran great, no miss as usual. There was obviously some puddled water, because it rained the night before. After I started driving it, the misfire appeared, so I assume water, e.g. that flowed between the hood and fenders and pooled on the inner fenders, ran/blew somewhere and made the misfire. After she warmed up, the misfire was gone; I'm guessing because the water dried up.

Where would water accumulate to cause a misfire? I checked the plug wires and distributor to coil wire, all the boots were in place, greased and dry as a bone. Alt. wiring was dry, coil wires were dry at the posts....I'm stumped.

I'm asking because I don't want to encounter this issue in a rain storm someday...

thanks all,

bg[/u]


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 7:07 pm 
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Turbo Slant 6
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Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:29 pm
Posts: 681
Location: Seattle, WA
Car Model: 75 Dart SE (2),75 Swinger, 74 Dart Sport,91 Ram RV
Could the water be in your fuel? Either a leak in, or condensation in the tank, especially with the tank almost empty? Try a fuel drier additive? Watch it, see if it continues?

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 7:13 pm 
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Site Admin
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 1:04 pm
Posts: 7425
Location: Oregon
Car Model: 2023 Eichman Digger?
Distributor cap. You can end up with condensation under the cap which can lead to this condition. Moisture under the cap will play havoc with points if your still running them, and cause cross firing issues or no fire conditions when moisture and dust combine inside even with electronic ignition.
In addition, if the wiper seals are leaking, you can have water on the back of the instrument panel. That can be bad. See if your getting water in through the wiper shafts. There are kits to fix this.

Water can get inside and into the back of the instrument cluster, or across ground connections from a faulty windshield gasket.

Verify all grounds inside on the firewall. If it's rusty, you may have an issue.

CJ

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:20 pm 
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Turbo Slant 6
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Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:29 pm
Posts: 681
Location: Seattle, WA
Car Model: 75 Dart SE (2),75 Swinger, 74 Dart Sport,91 Ram RV
On second thought, I agree with Ceej: condensation inside the distributor. (Before water in the fuel.) :)

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:46 am 
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SL6 Racer & Moderator
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Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2002 12:06 pm
Posts: 8799
Location: Silver Springs, Fl.
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Yep, condensation in the distributor cap.

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65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
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 Post subject: Ok...
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:10 am 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:07 am
Posts: 2132
Location: SF Bay Area
Car Model: 67 dart 2 door hardtop
I was thinking that too, I've seen it many times in my Dad's old cars, but he always had cracked caps because he never put anything new into his cars... my cap is pretty new, but hey could be moisture there. My windshield gasket is not perfect, needs replacing or further sealing.

I just thought it was weird because when it first started it wasn't missing at all, drove it for a few miles, then it started missing. I figured the water crept into something due to the wind blowing into the engine compartment from driving, but could have been a moist cap for sure.

thanks all!

Bg


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:12 am 
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Board Sponsor & SL6 Racer
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Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:36 pm
Posts: 2432
Location: East Arkansas
Car Model:
A wild thought here but does your car have a leak like wiper seals? You could get wet wiring for the bad wiper seals and this Could short out wiring(can even Partially short things out).
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:39 pm 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:56 pm
Posts: 1315
Location: TEXAS
Car Model:
'67-76 A-Body Wiper Seal Kit

http://www.engine-swaps.com/Pages/Produ ... html#head5

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 3:20 pm 
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Turbo Slant 6

Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:58 pm
Posts: 569
Location: New Jersey USA
Car Model:
If you work on cars long enough you patterns repeat, again, & again, & again. If you have an engine misfire/ rough run only when wet but ok dry-warm, then you have a 90%+ likelyhood of weak ignition secondary. High ambient moisture &/or road splash can make the outside of bad plug wires-cap-coil etc conductive enough to allow high voltage to bleed to ground.

My standard test is to put water (with a large dash of salt mixed in) into a spray bottle & soak the ignition while the engine runs- if needed load it in drive. That usually makes any problem show up. While I generally reccommend replacing full-plugs, wires, cap, & rotor; you can try to isolate the fault by connecting the ground clip on a test light to the engine & move the tip close to all the wires & such while the engine runs. Spark will jump from the weak point to the test light tip (it helps to do this in partial darkness for better visibility).

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