Engine seems to seems to skip or spudder once in a while.

[RoadRacer]

Engine seems to seems to skip or spudder once in a while, while driving.... My car was running terrible, so I took the cap off and noticed the rotor was in pieces and the nuts that hold the rotor down were off and stuck in the cap (real mess).
I changed the rotor, cap, plugs, wires and reset the timing. Car sounds much better... Now when I drive I have to keep it revved up or she will spudder or slight skip once in a while. (is spudder a word?) It does it allot if I am doing 40 in 4th gear, I have to go down to third....... What could be my problem?

[mbouse]

when you changed the wires, did you change the magnetic pickup? that shrapnel flying around the inside of the dizzy usually plays havoc with the mag/pickup wires as well. short those buggers out and you will have erratic at best, ignition.

[RoadRacer]

No, I did not change the magnetic pick up........ I will order one now. Thanks

[mbouse]

wouldn't stand in your way of that decision, but it is a simple thing to check. simply pull the dizzy cap off and look at the wires.

of course, i have a spare mag pickup on hand at all times.

[fiasco]

Did you change the condensers when you changed the other stuff. Your symptoms sound a lot like what I was experiencing. Slowly got worse over time until the car just quit running and I was forced to do something about it. Replaced the condensers (I had two because of dual points setup) and she started running smooth again.

-- se

[RoadRacer]

Does the 82 have a condenser?

[rlux4]

Yup. It connects to the coil's positive terminal.
Ron

[RoadRacer]

Well, I got the magnetic pick up today and installed it....... Car runs great now.
While I was removing the old one I noticed one of the wires was broken off where it goes into the magnetic pick up.
Good call mbouse Thanks.......

[baltobernie]

Oh no, that's two in a row for Mike. Wait until he finds out ...