Cruising on the highway last week I heard a pop/tick noise and it seemed to die for a split second then come back. Did this a few times within a couple miles. Has run rough all over and backfires when reved since then. Haven't looked that deep into it yet, but the research I've done points to a vac leak or timing problem as the most common causes.

So far this is what I do know:

No changes in the setup, basically left alone for quite a while now aside from changing the fast idle speed around the time winter hit

Distributor looks to be in the same position is has been and that bolt isn't loose

Although I haven't tested it with ether yet, the one vac line it has looks to be connected and as it was before this issue

The plugs look good to me, nothing broken and the tips are clean, maybe a little "dirty" looking on the ceramic. I've also pulled one wire at a time as I did last time I had a problem that ended up being a busted plug. Each plug made it run even worse when pulled from the cap.


I've also read about things like jumping timing, but I'd like to exhaust all the typical things first. Hopefully I've got some troubleshooting time before the next snow hits <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />