Weber choke issues help

[drddan]

George, a little background on my car, in case you didnt see this info:

This weber has been on for 2 years, running freakin great! Until the last month and a half.
It has Taylor 8mm wires, just changed the cap, rotor, and spark plugs 2 weeks ago, which at last check in summer, was showing proper color, good burn.
Now showing slightly damaged electrode, (kinda mushroomed at top) and black deposits. (rich)
The engine acts/sounds like it is not getting good spark, and imo, is becuse of the electrical issue its having.
The thing is confounding me. I am not that great with elec. issues, but am not totally dumb about it either.
Watch out world. I have a multi meter, and know how to use it. :p
I've been poking around on this thing for a few weeks, and havent been able to pin point any cause yet.
Any and all suggestions will be appreciated and tried!

[Movin]

You might be losing vacuum to vacuum advance and "falling out"
With a weber the vacuum advance should be plumbed to ported vacuum
and your idle speeds and mix reset. The "tip in" will be more responsive and
not sputter, the idle will drop only a little..like it use to. St Louis is pretty low
elevation 12 14 initial and a max of 44 for timing would be a good starting place,
play with it from there, back off if you get ping.

[nitrofarm]

If it only does it with Head light/Brake lights.....

One would then assume that its electrical correct? Check your grounds,in obvious succession. Battery,head light/tail light & dont forget coil ground. When I say check I mean physically remove the wire.And look for corrosion. Also I didnt read if you checked your cap/rotor for green stuff? Could just be that you arent getting healthy spark. Then under a load @ idle it rears its head.Cuz the engine just doesnt have enough inertia to smooth out the crappy spark.
PS your SURE you checked that blower circuit by removing the fuse correct??? I had the same issue you did.Exact same,and it turned up being the armature in the blower was actually moving around.(Bad end bell bushings would allow the armature/commutator to bind) It would randomly put a huge load on the charge system. Then hit a bump & it would go away. Geeeeezzz talk about a nut scratcher,that was fun.And it never blew fuses.

[Festy46]

Try taking the alternator belt off and then do your test for lights and brakes. If the rpms drop, it may be a problem like Movin described above. For racing, we never use an alternator. We start with a good fully charged battery that runs an electric fuel pump, cooling fan, in-car video recorder, dash lights, and ignition. We never have the problem you describe.

[zoe60]

Try taking the alternator belt off and then do your test for lights and brakes. If the rpms drop, it may be a problem like Movin described above. For racing, we never use an alternator. We start with a good fully charged battery that runs an electric fuel pump, cooling fan, in-car video recorder, dash lights, and ignition. We never have the problem you describe.

It'll overheat fast without a belt. Be quick with that test.

[drddan]

This has GOT to be electrical.
I have pulled every fuse...one at a time... nothing affected it ...EXCEPT the headlight fuse. Also one part of the day it will run pretty good, then it will start running TERRIBLE.
For instance, today...
I start it and drive to work, it idles a little rough, but runs great to work, and runs great to home, BUT, when I get off at highway exit ramps, it wants to die. Then it starts running badly again.
As soon as it does the "want to die thing" it starts running like poo.
Stays like that until it sits for a long while.
You guys, if you heard how this thing runs, when it is running badly, it sounds like it is ready for the boneyard, BUT, then it starts running good, and when it does, it sounds good too.
Have you ever been sitting next to a car at a red light, and when that car takes off, you hear this sputtering acceleration? Like...pfft..pfft...pfft, you know NOT smooth?
Like the timing is off and missing on a couple cylinders?
That is how MY engine sounds when it is running badly, but it WILL run smooth, and humm, when it is running good. It IS intermittent.
...and confusing
I am about to take it for a diagnostic check up, to find out what it is, because I dont have the time, or patience, to keep checking things and not find anything conclusive. :angryfire:

I have not checked the grounds real good, and it could be that. I am thinking I should start a check with the headlight grounds?

[drddan]

Ok, back at it again. Found some more patience! :p

Seems I have had multiple problems. Fixed one anyway.
Seems I had a defective disty cap! The coil wire contact inside the cap, the part that touches the rotor, was all messed up. It was all crooked and leaning kinda on it's side. This was a new cap, maybe on for 2 weeks.
Funny, the old cap was the same way. An injection molding issue? From the factory? I did buy 2 caps at the same time, and the one that was bad, and new, was one of those.
Exchanged it and now it doesnt sputter when running or accelerating.
I still have the rpm drop off, and dieing issue, with the lights on and brake applied, but is running WAY better.
I have kinda looked for ground issues, but not very well.
It seems it is the headlights that may have a ground issue, imo.
The brakes applied has always dropped the rpms, but only a little. It is when the headlights are on that really drops the rpm, so I figure that will be the place to check, next.

Oh, yeah, what about brake booster? If it is going bad, can it create a vacuum leak also? All vac lines are solid, no leaks.

[TominMO]

Yeah, I always inspect the inside of disty caps when I buy them. Once I found one that had plastic partially covering one of the four contcts arouind the edge. Check the inside of where the plug wires attach too.