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Help! Hit puddle now cars dead

Canadan

Canadan

New member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Location
Oregon
88 240 lh2.2 and ezk. Was going 15mph through a neighborhood and hit a water puddle on the drivers side, car started getting lean instantly on any throttle then I shut it down and won't restart. Has fuel pressue (gauge) but the distributor had a couple water drops on it when I opened the hood and has the typical loose connection to the body but never gave issues. Ideas?
 
tryingbe said:
:rofl:
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Dude your not feeling me, the connector is tight but when it's built into the distributor has always been loose like someone clicked in the connector without holding the bottom of the plug. That's why I said it has a loose connection to the body. I promise it's got a solid connection. I had fuel pressue and whathaveyouys. It was weird cause 15 min later by the time dad showed up he tried cranking it so I could check spark and hold an injector to see if it clicked and it slowly coughed to life. Ran lean a second longer then was fine. Alt didn't get sprayed but I'm still wondering what could have happened cause whatever it is I need to waterproof it. Afm was dry as well and the dizzy only had a few drops of water, wasn't soaked. Weird, I've even pressure washed this engine and fired it right back up.
 
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I've had rough-running issues before after driving through big puddles quickly...It's always been cause by water getting under the dizzy. Dry it out and it's back to normal.

I've also had cold engine in the rain rough running - solved by new plug wires. Moisture could get in and cause misfires, but then it would dry out when the engine warmed up.
 
sweated the inside of dizzy cap/

Remove it and dry it out. A napkin or paper towels will likely suffice. A tampon if it's soaked.
 
Yeah the first thing I did when I pulled over was check the main fuse and pop the cap off the dizzy. If it's okay to spray the inside I guess I should do that then maybe jb weld that plug to the body so water can't get in again. Thanks guys
 
tjanson said:
I've had rough-running issues before after driving through big puddles quickly...It's always been cause by water getting under the dizzy. Dry it out and it's back to normal.

I've also had cold engine in the rain rough running - solved by new plug wires. Moisture could get in and cause misfires, but then it would dry out when the engine warmed up.
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grnmachine02 said:
A can of wd40 in the trunk/glove box does wonders for water in the distributor cap.
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So is this the best solution? I've recently developed this issue and it was at its worse this morning. The other day I pulled the cap and cleaned up the rotor and contacts in the cap, but today it started rough, albeit in the first few starter revs, then under even mild accelerations it would miss and stutter bad, had to feather it till it was happy. Went away after maybe 5 min of driving; same thing happened before I cleaned the cap but would only stutter under maybe two from stop accelerations before it was gone and only on wet days like today where its very damp and foggy.

Is just spraying down the cap with WD once in a while enough? Would a silicone based spray be more effective? What's the best way to rule out the plug wires as contributing to the issue? Any permanent solutions to keeping the moisture out of the cap?
 
TempleUWS6 said:
So is this the best solution? I've recently developed this issue and it was at its worse this morning. The other day I pulled the cap and cleaned up the rotor and contacts in the cap, but today it started rough, albeit in the first few starter revs, then under even mild accelerations it would miss and stutter bad, had to feather it till it was happy. Went away after maybe 5 min of driving; same thing happened before I cleaned the cap but would only stutter under maybe two from stop accelerations before it was gone and only on wet days like today where its very damp and foggy.

Is just spraying down the cap with WD once in a while enough? Would a silicone based spray be more effective? What's the best way to rule out the plug wires as contributing to the issue? Any permanent solutions to keeping the moisture out of the cap?
Click to expand...

I was just saying that in a pinch it can be a quick fix. Torrential rain, no start, inside of cap is wet, blast it with wd and it should get you going.
 
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