Militaryman

Hello everybody. The problem I present to you today is this. My mustang has been running rich for no apparent reason (no apparent as in no vacuum leaks or carb fouls) and seems to almost be missing the 1st cylinder completely. I've been thinking that it might be the distributor, an HEI, which is causing all of this. The motor is a 289 A code with the 4 barrel carb. All help is appreciated. Thank you!

fastbackford351

You said it seems like it's missing. Are you sure that you haven't fouled a plug?

How are you determining that you're running rich? Those HEI setups are pretty idiot / bullet proof and as long as you have your timing set correctly, there isn't too much to go wrong.

Militaryman

Black soot is coming out of the exhaust and the plugs also had soot covering them. I had a timing light hooked up to the 1st cylinder to check the timing but it was barely working so I also can't tell if that's completely the 1st cylinder missing or if it's the light itself.

Chromeshadow

Did you hook the tming light up to another cylinder? Are all the plugs black?

68SCode4speed

Stuck choke ?

WJBertrand

I don't think a distributor can affect the mixture, could sure cause a misfire though. How do the plugs look?

Militaryman

I've checked other plugs and they are also covered in a very dark soot. I also tried hooking up the timing light up to other cylinders and they are also only giving intermediate bursts of light but then going dead for awhile. The light is never steady or even.

Chromeshadow

Did you try the light on the input cable to the center of the distributor?

Militaryman

Yes I put it on the hot cable and that has a steady light coming from it so it has power. All the other cylinders are intermediate though.

Chromeshadow

Not sure we're talking about the same thing, if the timing light flashes steadily on the center " spark plug " wire, from the coil to the distributor, but not on each plug wire, the problem is the rotor and the distributor cap.