car is running horribly... =(

Hi, i have a 90 AT and recently somehting happened in the distcap/rotor ( i think the screws of the rotor came off) but the rotor grinded a hole through the cap.

I replaced the rotor and the distributor cap but it is still running really bad. Idles at 750 cold, with a lot of vibration and feels like my car is working too hard just to stay on. Also when i press the gas pedal the car studders a lot reving up. right now im too scared to test drive it anywhere for mroe problems because i don't want it to die in the middle of the road like it did before.

I was wondering what could be causing this??

was there a dust cover on your distributor?
but if there was or wasn't check inside the distributor you should see what looks like a cross on the shaft where the rotor fits, this is what gets the electrical pulse to send to the plugs it need to be clean and the contacts on the body of the distributor, it is possible that if enough dust has got on to the contacts when your cap got shredded, it will make your engine run s**t, use a vacuum or spray with WD40 and use some tissue to clean, or to be really sure remove distributor and do the same as above, make sure you mark the distributor and the engine so that the when you put it back you don't need to have the timing set (TIPEX usally work best)

hope this helps

Yeah, when i replaced my cap and rotor, i was driving, and all of a sudden, the same thing happened to me. it was as if the screws on the rotor came off and i hear a loud bang. The rotor kinda shredded up the inside of my cap...it was weird. I don't know what caused this either. I replaced it back with my old cap and rotor, and i have no problems...however, i STILL need to get a new cap and rotor again..what waste of 30 bucks =T.

Bryan

It would be nice to know how many people this has happened to, If it seem to be a problem then I think I will Locktite the screws on the cap to stop them coming out by themselves.

Hmm ill try cleaning my dist tomrorow too then.

It seems the problem was whoever previously rewired some wiring and apparently didnt solder anything and one wire came apart. the car seemed to be normal once i connected it but still didnt test drive yet so wish me luck haha.

Thanks for the responces.

PS: haha this time i made sure to use a fair amount of loctite on it. just in case you know... lol