runs rough after a night of rain

[k9sar]

I could probably troubleshoot this but I'm tired and lazy. 95 pathy runs fine but, if it rains overnight (or during the day when I'm parked at work), occasionally when I start the truck to leave, it chokes and sputters and I have to nurse the pedal to keep it running. It clears up after a couple minutes (engine warms up?). Thoughts? Water seems to be an obvious answer but I don't see how it could be plugs/wires/disty because of the hood preventing water from getting on/in them and it runs fine when I drench the engine bay going throuhg puddles/creeks/etc.

 

 

[vagabond]

I'd check the dizzy cap first

[vagabond]

I'd check the dizzy cap first

[Slartibartfast]

You can say that again... oh wait.

 

Makes sense to me, it's high enough on the engine to not be affected by water crossings but the humidity could get to it on wet days (and condense inside as the engine cools). From what I've read of other people's similar issues, the cap's often the problem. Maybe try shooting water directly at the cap with the engine running?

[SkiBumBrian]

++ on distributor. My first thought when I was reading the post and not the first time I have confronted that problem. One thing I don't know about the Pathy (yet) is what controls A/F mix on cold starts. Another possibility.

[Kingman]

AFR on cold starts is controlled by the ECU Coolant Temp Sensor.

 

X1000 on the cap. I started having a bit of that issue a while back, so I popped the cap off and sprayed it with WD40 then put a bead of silicone around the seat to seal it to the distributor. Hasn't done it since.

[Precise1]

WD40 is definitely the way to test it. I drove a dune buggy for years with an exposed dizzy and it was a standard 'fix' in the winter.

Have a can handy and any tools you would use and wait until it acts up, then spray it down and see f it disappears. I prefer to determine the cause as much as fix it...

 

B