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[Mitch]

Just got myself an 88 Verde and trying to resolve a problem with what feels like a miss at idle or low rpm's under load. The engine has s cams but I don't think that they would make much difference. After doing some reading on this site I suspect that the problem will turn out to be bad grounds. It could also be a bad distributor cap and rotor or the HT lead from the coil. I was cleaning the connections on the coil this weekend and didn't get the HT wire plugged all the way into the coil. I got bout 6 blocks before the car lost power and stalled. It would restart but would only idle for about 15 seconds before it stalled again. It took me a little while but I finally figured out that it was the HT lead and plugged it in. I may have bent it a bit when plugging it in and wonder if I could have damaged it. Since the plugs were fouled from this little episode I replaced them.

The miss was there before this but it seems a bit worse now or I'm just paying more attention to it. Any ideas on how to diagnose this problem?

[MD]

Just some broad clues for you to work through. Misfiring under load could be from:

Faulty coil
Faulty Capacitor
Faulty HT leads
Poor Ground
Poor B+
Faulty plugs
Faulty Computer

Work through each area at a time to eliminate it and you may get your answer if it is electrical. Substitution is a good way to go.

[Mitch]

Turned out to be the distributor cap and rotor. They were pitted and there was a chunk missing from the base of the cap. Couldn't do without some excitement and got the plug wires off by 1 position. The resulting pop had my wife come see if I was still there.