Thread: Idle / Distro Troubles...

I know, I've posted about this before, but never with much detail...

Occasionally my car will start running super jerky, and idle will bounce all over the place. If I pull over and wiggle the wires going into the larger plug from the harness on the distributor, it will usually stop acting up and go back to running (what I feel is) normal. It hasn't done this in a few weeks thankfully. I did notice the past two days, that normal operating temp idle, I'm running between 1400-1500 rpms. This is after driving 40ish miles home from work. I popped the hood today, and wiggling the bundle of wires a bit, the car was going back and forth (depending on position of wires, it is hit or miss, and I never move the bundle of wires more than 1/4") between idling high, and idling at normal 900rpm.

I'm assuming my problem is somewhere in the connection being made inside of that connector. Can anyone tell me how to fix this without replacing the whole plug (There's not shxt for extra space or wire to pull it up a bit and be able to cut and hook a pigtail from another one up, and I don't have the knowledge or time to pull a bunch of things out to make room to work there).
Also, can anyone explain exactly what is happening that causes the idle to vary so much when I wiggle that wire?

Also, sometimes when I wiggle it, it will choke for a tiny bit of a second, almost as if it is going to stall out, right before shooting right back up to high idle.

Note that I am not moving the connector nor distributor whatsoever, so the problem shouldn't be in the distributor itself.

Sounds like broken wiring to me all the way. You're doing the classic 'wiggle test' that even some manufacturers specify as the procedure to test for broken wiring. What does this mean for you? Time to double-check by moving only specific sections of the distro wiring and replace wires with new ones if/when breaks are found.

The only other option is an issue with the distributor connection, but if that isn't moving at all then you're back to wiring.

As for your idle, sounds like it's simply adjusted too high and losing a connection from the distributor is causing a smooth miss to bring your idle down to 900. Get the car running consistently with no jumping when you move wires and then reset your idle speed.