No fire to #1 plug

J

JBohannon

Senior Member
This newbie is not getting fire to the #1 plug. I notice my plug was wet and I had a misfire. I have shorted it, no fire. Finally I put a timing light to all plugs and it works on all but this plug. Cleaned rotor cap and rotor contacts. Any ideas. Thanks in advance.
 
Change plugs around and see if another plug fires in the #1 cyl?! Could be just a bad plug. Keep us posted on results. stock cap etc? or modern wires etc?
 
But would I not still have fire even if the plug were bad. Or would a bad plug short the fire.The plug is almost new.
 
You can do a continuity check between the inside and the outside terminals of the body. But you still could have a bad body. It might have a crack in it that is hard to see. I would try another body if you have one. Try running the engine in a totally dark garage, and look for sparks jumping to ground. It might even jump to another terminal and you would have double firing on a plug.
 
You may have a crack in the top portion of the distributor at #1. terminal causing the spark to be deflected to ground. Try another upper distributor body.

Tom Endy
 
Pull the contact strip away from the plug by about 1/8 inch then start the engine. You should see the spark jump across. If no spark I would suspect the distributor body.
 
After you check all that other crap, check the point gap on #1 dist cam lobe or maybe a wobbly dist shaft
 
JBohannon said:
Fred How do I test my distributor rotor body. Thanks
Click to expand...
Have someone you don't particularly like or your local Model A know-it-all hold onto the brass strip going to the number one plug. Crank the engine over a few times with the ignition on. If the person screams or jumps ten feet in the air or is seen running around shaking his hand like it was covered with stinging bees then the distributer body is OK and the fault must be in the plug. If nothing happens, then the distributer body is at fault. I'm just kidding. Don't really do this. You may injure someone or kill them. I would feel very sad and guilty if that happened.
 
I can run a continuity check on the rotor body which is what I will do next. Now another question. I have all new plugs that only have about 1 hour total on them. Can a plug go bad just by being flooded out or do I just clean the contact area. I really do apprecitate all the help. Joe B.
 
Yes, plugs can be fouled by flooding the engine with gas, or oil fouled. If that's the case I'd heat the plug tip with a propane torch to burn off the gas or oil.

I'm also betting on a bad distributor body. I've seen a few shorted internally so the spark jumps to another plug. Easy enough to switch the cap and it's a good idea to have a spare anyway.
 
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