Ford Capri - Distributor Caps

Previous blogs I have written this year relate to the problems with my white XL running roughly at times. I spent a lot of time trying to eliminate fuel problems but lately the car has been running really badly. I have always been concerned about the side entry distributor cap that I bought with the new Accuspark distributor. The inserts in which the clips fit are very shallow & seem to me to allow some movement in the cap.
I have a number of spare caps but they suit the Bosch distributors & the Accuspark is a replacement for the Lucas brand. The photos show that the Lucas style is narrow in diameter.


The first one is the side entry that I have been using, the middle one is the new top entry & the one on the right is the Bosch style. The other photo shows the difference in how the clips attach to the cap. I originally choose the side entry as it gave better access to the distributor as the plumbing (water hoses) for the Weber carbie with the automatic choke is quite extensive.



After a lot of stuffing about, mainly due to my misreading the order of the plug wires (which I had carefully numbered!), I got the engine running again & it sounds pretty good but the proof will be in a road test. I also adjusted the carbie mixture screw to get the car running a bit leaner.
While trying to get the car running with the wrong firing order, it back fired several times through the carbie, starting a small fire. A bit of excitement for a moment!!! A very thick towel that I had handy was put over the top of the carbie & soon extinguished it, thank goodness. I have never had anything like that happen before. The foam from the air filter was burnt but that was all. I am very fortunate it was not worse.

 

Hopefully the rain will have stopped tomorrow & I will take the car for a decent test drive.