what a coincidence

[mike88]

After reading everyones tales of woe and troubles,thought I'd pass on one of my own. Last summer, the 88 was running real low on gas. Stopped at this place that had a rep. for bad fuel once in a while,but I took a chance. Only put $5.00 in it to get me to regular station. Sure enough,2-3 blocks away,car starts stumbling and coughing. Well I limp her home and start diagnosing in my feeble mind what may have happened. 1st thought,fuel. Put a couple of cans of heet in tank,hoping to suck up suspected water. While I was at it,thought maybe I stirred ip some junk in the bottom of a 30 yr. old tank,and changed carb fuel filter too. Next day same problem. Going deeper,decided to start with light tune up. New cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. Pulled off plug wires from cap and removed HEI cap as normal, but what did my wondering eyes see on top of the rotor,the bottom 1/2 of the contactor that mounts inside dist. cap! Happens that it must have broke right after I left the gas station w/the bad rep. Needless to say,after I finished the tune up and not finding anymore mysteries The 88 was running like the fine top she always has been.

[auto trainy]

Its very common to asociate one problem to another,I'm a package line mechanic and I try never to tell an operator what fixed the problem because the next time a machine acts up they think its the same and sometimes try to fix it themselves and thats creates a new problem if you know where I'm going.