Post by Rotorhog on Oct 24, 2006 10:28:14 GMT -5
Put this down in the 'I'm glad I didn't completely make a mountain out of a mole hill' category.
About 6 months ago I did my usual annual plugs, wires, distributor etc tune up on my 84 SE. As usual I put in a new set of NGK BR8EQ14's and the blue Mazda ignition wires. As usual she responded nicely to the tune up and all was well in my little rotary world.
A few weeks ago I noticed a rumbling for lack of a better description at idle. Sometimes it was prevalent, other times not. Being at idle, given the age of the car and original gear box, clutch assembly still in it, I got the idea that it was throwout or pilot bearing related. Sometimes the rumbling would quit if the clutch was pushed in while in neutral but most of the time not. Being in the middle of a refueling outage (refuel reactor core) on Unit 2 I just haven't had time to work with it.
Yesterday, I went to work about 4:45 AM and noticed my tach was acting crazy, jumping all over the place. The motor seemed to run a little rough and a touch warm for the cold conditions at that time. If I revved it I also got a little pop when I let off. I had visions of a bad trailing igniter. Oh boy, find one of those for reasonable price.
When I got home from work with the same symptoms I opened the hood to let the good times roll. I immediately spotted the trailing plug wire on the rear rotor disconnected at the plug. Also, the conductor on the end of the plug had unscrewed itself and fell off God knows where. A new plug solved the problem.
Now I have a good tach, smooth motor and oddly enough, no rumbling! My daughter commented about a week ago that my car was idling rough. I told her no, it's idling fine, it's that %@%$# clutch going south.
Given the intermitant nature of the symptoms I'm thinking as the conductor pole backed off of the threaded piece of the spark plug I was getting a poor connection off and on. Until it finally fell off. This was annoying enough, but can you imagine how annoyed I would have been to pay for a new clutch assembly and still have the problem?
I always tell people to check the simple stuff first when trying to remedy a problem. I think my daughter applied that concept better than me!
One question for some of you knowledgable types: Why make sparkplugs like that? Seems like an invitation for failure to me. BTW, I checked the other plugs, they were fine.
About 6 months ago I did my usual annual plugs, wires, distributor etc tune up on my 84 SE. As usual I put in a new set of NGK BR8EQ14's and the blue Mazda ignition wires. As usual she responded nicely to the tune up and all was well in my little rotary world.
A few weeks ago I noticed a rumbling for lack of a better description at idle. Sometimes it was prevalent, other times not. Being at idle, given the age of the car and original gear box, clutch assembly still in it, I got the idea that it was throwout or pilot bearing related. Sometimes the rumbling would quit if the clutch was pushed in while in neutral but most of the time not. Being in the middle of a refueling outage (refuel reactor core) on Unit 2 I just haven't had time to work with it.
Yesterday, I went to work about 4:45 AM and noticed my tach was acting crazy, jumping all over the place. The motor seemed to run a little rough and a touch warm for the cold conditions at that time. If I revved it I also got a little pop when I let off. I had visions of a bad trailing igniter. Oh boy, find one of those for reasonable price.
When I got home from work with the same symptoms I opened the hood to let the good times roll. I immediately spotted the trailing plug wire on the rear rotor disconnected at the plug. Also, the conductor on the end of the plug had unscrewed itself and fell off God knows where. A new plug solved the problem.
Now I have a good tach, smooth motor and oddly enough, no rumbling! My daughter commented about a week ago that my car was idling rough. I told her no, it's idling fine, it's that %@%$# clutch going south.
Given the intermitant nature of the symptoms I'm thinking as the conductor pole backed off of the threaded piece of the spark plug I was getting a poor connection off and on. Until it finally fell off. This was annoying enough, but can you imagine how annoyed I would have been to pay for a new clutch assembly and still have the problem?
I always tell people to check the simple stuff first when trying to remedy a problem. I think my daughter applied that concept better than me!
One question for some of you knowledgable types: Why make sparkplugs like that? Seems like an invitation for failure to me. BTW, I checked the other plugs, they were fine.
