<VV> Beware Damp Weather, Old Cap, & High-Output Ignition

[Mikeamauro at aol.com]

Rained hard here in St. Pete, FL, all day yesterday and into the wee hours  
of this A.M. The 67 coupe started fine, and the wife drove away for work 
before  sun up. 15-minutes later she calls: "Car stalled at a light, and it 
barley  restarted; I crawled it into a Publix parking lot." Arrived  shortly 
thereafter and sent her on her way in the Greenbrier. When I tried  to start 
the engine, the car would not move under its own power... my wife  performed 
an astounding feat getting the car to "crawl" into the parking lot.  The 
culprit: inside the distributor cap, one very wide carbon track leading  
straight from the coil "button" to #3 contact. Why tell this story?... well,  
even though the cap is at least several years old, the contacts are still  
serviceable, but upon closer examination--besides the telltale carbon track--it  
became evident I'd neglected cleaning the inside of the cap, ever. Add a  
humid climate, a high energy, electronic ignition system (SafeGuard +  
Crane/Allison), plugs gapped at .040, a small diameter (Corvair) distributor  cap, 
and the high-voltage energy apparently decided traveling across the inside  
of the distributor cap was easier than taking the correct pathway down the  
wires to the spark plugs. The carbon track wall a full 1/16 inch wide! The  
plug wires are top-quality and nearly new, so I don't feel high resistance, 
 there, was a contributor.  Because of electronic ignition, I've gotten  
into a habit of hardly ever looking under the distributor cap... "once  burnt, 
twice shy," that habit changes as of today.
 
Mike Mauro
of various Corvairs ...  http://community.webshots.com/user/mikeamauro