new '81 dissy rubs hood and bucking

[whiterabbit]

Hi all. Just picked up a FI '81 and am having some issues with it. Its distributor rubs the hood insulation where the spark plug wires are plugged in. It's chafing on the under hood insulation and I think it's causing the car to missfire. Allot of bucking,no backfires. When you close the hood with it running the car will miss a beat. The cap has a slope on the other side of the top for clearance? But my wires on the cap point up and over the engine to the left. Shouldn't the cap spark plug wires point to the right so the slope is on top?? The car ran great for two days but I had to nurse it 20miles home last nite. (wife was not a happy camper) Firing order correct,no vac leaks,full tank of gas,half a pack of smokes,74thousand miles on it. Hmmmm.
Thanks.
(Trudging back out to the garage)

[So Cal Mark]

the wires normally point towards the engine on those cars, otherwise the vacuum advance interferes with timing adjustment. If your wires have high resistance, the spark may find the path to ground through the hood is an easier route. The original insulation on the hood was non-conductive

[whiterabbit]

Wow! I think its pulling them loose with engine movement. They're supposed to rub the hood like that? Looks bad rubbing into the insulation. Again, Wow. I just figured the slope on the top of the cap was for hood clearance. Ok.

[narfire]

I've had the same problem in the past. As Mark said the wires can rub and mine did shorting out a lead and another was loose. Pulled the dist and rotated it and put it back and set timing again. No problems with the leads but just finished swapping out the mag pick up as one of the wires inside were rubbing on the rotor,rubbing a patch of plastic insulation to the copper and shorting it out a bit. I noticed a pop and decrease in power before and when it stops raining, I'll go and test drive.
Chris

[azruss]

I find that you can find a sweet spot where the wires clear ok. I think i have mine set about 10 o'clock position. I did have to customize a wrench to tighten the bolt. I have never run an insulated hood and that actually gives me a little more clearance.

[whiterabbit]

Dizzy back in. I took a sharpie and marked everything. New vac adv in! now i gott'a time it. 10deg btdc. Wow! They could make more difficult to see the marks, but I doubt it!