Good day!
Well, I'm a little embarassed that it turned out to be so simple... I've
been around the block enough times with this car and others to know to
suspect the cap and rotor first off. I got thrown by two things, I think.
First, the fact that the problem started so suddenly, not gradually as I
would expect. Secondly, I've lost track mentally of when I replaced such
items, (I didn't drive or even SEE the car for six years!) and in my head I
thought the cap and rotor were a hell of a lot newer than they turned out
to be, according to my service record. Thinking that these parts were very
"fresh," they didn't stand out as culprits. Anyway, this is why it's SO
nice to have access to people with much more knowledge and experience than
I have, to remind me of the basics. God knows I've both heard and learned
from personal experience the mechanic's creed about always checking the
simplest and cheapest thing first. For some reason, that is hard to
remember this under certain circumstances. Another lesson learned!!
So, the car is running fine now. HOWEVER... I've not installed new parts
yet, they'll be here Monday. (cap and rotor) But, yesterday I REALLY
wanted to go fly fishing. The way the car was running there was no way it
would get me to the Fall River and back. I HAD to try SOMETHING else to
get me by until Monday. I picked up six NGK BPR5ES plugs, gapped them all
at .035", and installed them. Then, I cleaned up the rotor and each
contact with some very fine sandpaper. I took it for a spin, and I'll be
damned if it didn't run just about perfectly!! So, I packed up my gear and
drove the 28 miles to the river. It never missed a beat! (I only caught
four rainbows, BTW... the biggest was only about 14 inches...)
So, a happy end to this story. I suppose it's possible that the real
problem was the plugs, but given the number of miles that were on the cap
and rotor, I think that was it. Thank you all so much for helping out!!
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6
Kinda wish I had a Land Rover for fishing!!
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