Mark Maras

That you will. I'll know more tomorrow. The plan, so far, Cliff is picking us up at the airport and spending the day. He'll chime in tomorrow. He just got home from his weekend and was going to bed.

Kathy and I are taking a United red-eye flight from Portland. Cliff is picking us up at the airport at 9:55 AM. This is going to be fun!

@jalexquijano I don't think you need hotter plugs yet. Some of the plugs are looking good. Let's figure out what's wrong with the others. Have you installed the new wires yet?

Keep an eye on the Portland and Seattle Craigslist.There's still quite a few Z's in this corner of the country.

My first option would be to remove the brass sleeve and butt weld the ends together. It seems likely that a short piece of round bar may be needed to fill an unseen gap. Second choice would be drill and tap the sleeve on both ends. I'd probably put four holes in it. Drill deep enough to dimple the linkage shaft, tap the holes and secure it with set-screws.

I knew little about DCOE's until I followed this thread. Thanks. Now for my observation and question. Do you think the problem with the 45's is they're a bit to big for the cubic inches and that's why the 40's work better? The reason I ask is this problem seems related to the late 60's when people would install a higher cfm Holley (usually) on a small block Chevy. The results weren't good. I've always assumed the reduced performance was caused by reduced air speed through the venturis.

@jalexquijano Normally I would say no because we haven't proven them to be defective but I'm going to say yes, dump them. They're not that expensive and I still suspect the problem is in the wires or connections.

Check it for elec. continuity first. Whee was the one that told us about soaking sending units in CLR. I've saved a couple of sending units using his tip. The worst one had good continuity but was rusted up solid. Nothing would move. That one took 48 hours in CLR. It came out looking good and worked great.

I'd wiggle things first and check the ground. An easy method of checking grounds is make a temporary ground using a length of electrical wire with an alligator clip on each end. Ground the instrument with the temp. ground wire and see if anything changes.

I'm going on what I've read. It appears that the speedo has two wing nuts that are accessed from under the dash. One wingnut on the top, one on the bottom. It's been reported that they can be difficult to crack them loose. After removing the wingnuts and disconnecting the wiring, the speedo pulls out from the front. If you have a dash cap it will be difficult to get the speedo out but it's possible. Good luck.

@siteunseen

I fabbed the cover piece once. The problem with bending the 1/2" rear lip down is that neither long edge is straight. Not much of a radius but it's there. I ended up using a 6" vice to coax the bend in short sections then hammers and dollies to clean it up. It came out better much than I expected.

I don't think so either based on your reports of the engine pulling strong.

31908. It's hidden above. Between your post count and map location.

Although I agree that the timing shouldn't be changed at this time, I doubt that retarding the timing back to 12 btdc would change anything unless a bad connection was bumped and improved.

Leave the timing at 14 btdc.

I think it might improve it but I doubt that it would be eliminated. There's still something wrong and we're getting closer to the cause, I think. Reducing the gap would certainly allow it to fire easier. One could combine both ideas (maybe) and buy a hotter plug and reduce the gap. Who knows, it just might work. BUT, my decades of shade tree mechanic work tell me this is a very simple problem (unless it's Pertronix related) and I refuse (at least for now) to give up. I have the same feeling about this problem as the previous SU problem. Simple problem, simple fix. @jalexquijano Have you tried swapping #4 wire with another next to it? After swapping the two wires, warm it up, take it for a fun drive, bring it home and let it idle for a while. Let it cool down and pull all the plugs. That should be the next test. We're getting closer to the problem.?

@jalexquijano I'm proud of you. An improvement. Interesting that we're back to #4 looking worse than the rest. I think it may look a little better than before. Do you think that you could swap #4 plug wire with either #3 or #5, Length would be the only problem. Swapping #4 with another wire will allow us to see if the problem stays at #4 or goes to another cylinder with the wire. I'm interested in your thoughts on this. You're the one that improved the firing on #3 and #5 by (I'm assuming) checking and adjusting the connections. Can you think of anything specifically you did to improve it?

I like your wild arse guess. Now we need a Pertronix guru to walk us through a test procedure. Volunteers?

Speaking of old engine analyzers, my Dad used to check his plug wires by waiting until dark and spraying water (spray bottle) on the plug wires while the engine was idling. It was my first of many light shows to come. @jalexquijano Give it a try. You never know, it might turn something up.

Hi Charles. My decades of welding was mostly done on galvanized pipe and steel. I've experienced the symptoms of "zinc fume fever" (google it) many times. Along with a sweet taste in your mouth, it will give you the same symptoms as coming down with the flu. Headache, fever, chills, thirst, nausea, vomiting, chest soreness, fatigue, gastrointestinal pain, weakness and tiredness. (List is courtesy of Lincoln Welding). As you can see, zinc oxide fumes can make you feel pretty crappy. The good news is that the symptoms don't last all that long. By the end of a days exposure one goes home sick. Next morning the worst of the symptoms are gone. The effects seem to be cumulative. After a week of daily exposure, one needs the weekend to partially recover. I've not had much exposure to cadmium but you're correct in that cad. has much worse long term effect. Prayers coming your way. Let us know what you discover. Many of us are welding and plating on a regular basis.

Ok, If you've completed all the tests and found everything looking good put it back together with good (or new) plugs and take it for a run and then let it idle. I'm hoping that you've improved the connections while doing the tests. Let us know.

Ok, Now with the wires connected to the plugs and cap, measure the resistance from each of the contacts inside the cap to the center electrode on each spark plug.

Good job but, no ride yet. Now disconnect the wires from the cap and connect them to the spark plugs which have been removed. Measure the resistance from the center pole on the bottom of the plug and the connector on the wires that goes to the dist. cap.

Ok, good. Now connect the wires to the distributor cap and measure the resistance from the contact inside the cap to the spark plug connector. see if the readings change.