Goosepoop302

So i finally decided to drive the mustang around for a day. All was well starting off, drove it to work about 10 minutes away, no issues. Ran fine, idle was good and it seeemed to have power in all gears. Drove about 20 miles on the car during/for work, still no issues. later in the day i took the car out again and started to notice a hesitation or a bog lower in the rpm range. I got to my destination, did what i had to do and headed home. this time the bog was worse through all gears, noticed a big power loss. i got the car home and tryed to run it a few times to diagnose the issue and began having trouble just getting it to run, pulled the plugs (2 were a bit dark/ slightly wet) replaced them with autolite gapped at .045. Hoping this would solve the issue i tryed again and no luck. Now it seems that only the passanger side cylinders are firing as the driver side ones are cool to the touch after making the engine struggle on for a short time. during this process i forgot to plug my MAF back in before firing one attempt and amazingly it started better then any of the previous attemps in the past hour. i could really use some help here....this car is one thing after another and im just wasted trying to iron out the bugs. Could a dirty MAF casue something like a whole bank going cold? i know there is spark on those plugs...i felt it to be sure.. any ideas, input or whatever would be great.

mattdel

Nah, no MAF involvement. My money is on a dead ignition pickup.

Goosepoop302

sorry but which part is the ignition pickup? just to the right of the distributer cap? Also it occured to me that when the car was turned over i had the boot of the spark plug wire in my hand....should the current be able to hit me like that instead of going through the spark plug gap? (had a spare plug in the wire at the time)

mattdel

The pickup is inside the distributor, under the rotor. Have to take the distributor out and disassemble to get to it.
As for the spark jumping to your hand, it shouldn't, unless you didn't have the plug screwed in or touching any metal.

mattdel

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...ifier=884_0_0_

Goosepoop302

I will take a look at the pickup. is this something that will visually look worn or damaged if that is the case? as for the spark, i had a plug in the spark plug boot and was holding the wire near the bottom of the rubber boot when this occured. wasnt touching any metal as i was trying to see if a spark would arc accross the plug

mattdel

Spark won't arc across the plug unless the bottom electrode is grounded. It'll jump to you otherwise.

Goosepoop302

Sounds logical. I was thinking the spark plug boots on my wires could be going bad and causing arc to the header before it hits the plug.. They have been put through some pretty tough heat conditions in trying to get this car running right. Ive herd a way to check is try to start it in darkness and watch but i have not had an opportunity to try it.

mattdel

Yeah that's a possibility. In the darkness is the best time, also get a spray bottle with water and mist the wires as it's running. Hell of a light show if the wires are indeed bad.

Goosepoop302

Im about to go try and test for arcing to the cyl. heads. Just to confirm matt, could a bad ignition pickup cause just the driver side to go bad while running the passenger side? dont wana take out the distributer if not nessisary but ill do what i have to.