Chris,
One explanation is: the one plug wire had a low resistance (relatively
speaking) to ground - this could drain the high voltage and prevent an arc. By
pulling the wire out a bit, the resistance path to ground is removed and the
coil output reaches a high enough voltage to arc over the wire-gap-in-the-cap.
The arc, once initiated and being a plasma, has a low resistance, and this
allows the spark plug to arc. In essence the gap-in-the-cap isolated the coil
from the plug wire until the arc forms. The fault could be a plug which is
fouled badly enough to have a carbon track to ground, or a plug wire with
faulty insulation.
So - that is one possible answer.
-Roger
Chris Stephenson wrote:
> snip
> The solution was to create an arc
> with the plug wire where it goes into the distributor. I did this by
> slightly pulling it away from the distributor contact. I ran it that way for
> about 6 months before I parked the car. Maybe someone on the list can
> explain why arcing the wire worked.
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