DS II miss fire

[mugsy]

I installed a DuraSpark II system last year. The dizzy, control box along with new spark plugs and plug wires were purchased new. The wiring harness and coil were from an old Granda I found in a junkyard. The car misses when it idles and just doesn't run that smooth. I put my timing light on all 6 wires/leads, one at a time. I found that the #3, #5 and #6 did not produce a constant flash. I also re-gapped the plugs, but they all looked the same. So what is wrong? Are the wires bad? is the control box the cause? The cap and rotor are new, so it shouldn't be that, could it be the old junkyard coil?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

tanx,
Mugsy 8)

 

[JackFish]

My bet would be on a failing coil.

 

[XFlow_Fairlane]

being it all new parts but not OEM could be the problem. I know the 2.3L guys have issues when running anything other than a Ford mod/plugs/wires and going with OEM parts will solve idle issues alot on them.

how do the cap and rotor look? are the wires fully seatted on the cap and plugs? coil connections firm? how is the horseshoe plug?

 

[jamyers]

Firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4, and since your 3, 5, and 6 are all in a row 5-3-6. I'd take a really close look at your distributor cap for cracks or carbon tracking (looks like a pencil line), and then at the rotor.

Make SURE the cap is fully seated, it could be cocked a bit, which would have those 3 cylinders too far from the rotor to fire well.

 

[matt1967]

My bet would be on a failing coil.

if it's intermittant on certin cylinders, it's ither the cap, rotor or the reluctor dosn't work right on those cylinders ( uncommon, but it could be damaged ) or, the inductive pickup of the timing light is placed to close to ither of the ends of the plug wires, which causes weak signal to the light

 

[mugsy]

TurboFairLane200: The cap and rotor are new; I bought them along with the dizzy. The wires are seated firmly on the plugs and the dizzy. I learned about this the hard way back in the early '80s The horseshoe seems to be OK too .

Jamyers: Good point about the 3-5-6 firing order. I'll look closer at the cap and such.

Matt1967: As for the inductive pick-up placement; I put it in a few different places on the wire, away from the other wires to make sure there wasn't any "cross-talk" or "noise". What should I look for on the reluctor?

 

[matt1967]

TurboFairLane200: The cap and rotor are new; I bought them along with the dizzy. The wires are seated firmly on the plugs and the dizzy. I learned about this the hard way back in the early '80s The horseshoe seems to be OK too .

Jamyers: Good point about the 3-5-6 firing order. I'll look closer at the cap and such.

Matt1967: As for the inductive pick-up placement; I put it in a few different places on the wire, away from the other wires to make sure there wasn't any "cross-talk" or "noise". What should I look for on the reluctor?

reluctor should not look damaged, a chip, or being off center could do what you describe. you could check with an osciliscope set to A/C sign wave, to verify that it works properly.