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Female vs. male distributor cap

14K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  C_andy460 
#1 · (Edited)
Do the male caps tend to be more reliable?

Here's the deal. Since I put together my carb'd 460 combo, I've had a random missfire. I've been through the valve adjustments a couple of times and the timing and the carb tuning. None of that has ever effected the missfire.

For example, driving down the freeway, under cruise circumstances at 60 MPH, every 5-10 seconds, it will miss once.

My combination is as follows: Female cap on a Scott R. recurved Duraspark. I've got an MSD 6AL ignition box, Accel 8.8MM wires to Autolite 45 conventional spark plugs, gapped at .035.

The engine is stock rotating assembly, Scott R. spec'd ported iron C8 heads, approximately 10:1 compression, approximately 400 flywheel horsepower.

I'm always a little unnerved by the fact that the wires don't positively lock on the cap. It seems like the boots are tight and tend to force the wire back out of the cap. Maybe none of that has any bearing on the issue?

Opinions?

Thank you!!

--Ed
 
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#6 ·
Make sure to keep #'s 7/8 wires seperated as much as possible.Sometimes they will fire on each other. They aren't the best of friends on SOME BBF's.:)
 
#9 ·
Fits all 1957-1987 V8 distributors (except EEC). High performance replacement for high energy OEM rotor and cap on 1977-1987 V8 distributors. Installation on 1957-1976 distributor (which had smaller diameter cap) reduces possibility of crossfire between terminals at high rpm's.
Compatible with Ford Racing ignition wire sets.
Aluminum terminals
M-12106-A302
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the advice, guys. I ordered the MSD 8414 kit, and a set of Ford wires. If that doesn't improve the situation, I'll try increasing the plug gap. I'll double check on the grounds, as well. I could see how a poorly grounded engine could cause a weak spark..

--Ed
 
#13 ·
Miss fire

I had a similar problem in my Bronco. I was using a Performance Distributors Dura-Spark and everytime I hooked up the vaccum advance the engine would start missfiring. I had a MSD-6A on it at the time. I changed to a stock Dura-Spark and the Bronco is fine now. I am using the Performance Distributors dizzy with a HEI module on my Torino and it works fine even with the vaccum advance.
Andy
 
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