So I spent most of my free time this weekend changing out the caps and rotors on the 87 Mondial. Now it runs horribly! It recently failed the emissions test, and barely passed after being fiddled with by a shop that I thought knew fuel injection. The issue was hydrocarbons at idle, which were initially at about 225 and dropped to 210 after the "fix". The specification calls for them to be much lower, I think max. 150. (I don't have a means of testing them). The ignition components other than the plugs and extensions had about 28K miles on them, and the shop told me they were a likely cause of the poor emmissions, which made sense given the mileage. In the last week or so it had begun to miss a bit at around 2,000 rpm as well, and it felt like ignition. The change out was slow, but I think I did everything correctly. The only item of concern was that the new caps seemed to have a much shorter contact in the middle (to connect to the rotor) than the ones on the car. I left the center contacts a bit loose on the assumption they would get pressed in on the springs as needed during installation. I did not replace the ignition wires, which are now the only ignition component left from before my purchase of the car. I did try to line the holes in the insulation up with the points of the cap screws, so there would not be multiple punctures in the insulation. from the resistance while screwing them down, this worked on 6 wires, or so. The car now starts immediately, and doesn't have the heavy Hc smell at idle as it did before. However, it misses badly across the RPM range and generally feels like the spark is weak. I've only driven it a mile or so since the change, but don't expect this to "settle down" unless it is a matter of melting new holes through the inner insulation on the plug wires. I did not use any sealer when installing the gasket on the cap, nor were any lubricants used to insert the ignition wires into the caps. Idling in the darkened garage, there is no evidence of arcing, even under the boots that cover the caps. Note that prior to the work, the front distributor wasn't screwed all the way down, and it's rotor was badly pitted, so I have to believe this would be a major improvement. Any guesses on what I screwed up? Useful hints and suggestions? Do I have to replace the ignition wires when the caps are replaced? I suspect the FI is somewhat out of adjustment, but since only the ignition changed this weekend, I don't think that changing the FI settings is the cure. Thanks in advance for any thoughts. Peter
