Old timer at the shop told me to check distributor cap first, he was right

Got a 97 F150 in last week that was missing and stumbling under load. I was about to dive into fuel injectors and all that. Old Bob from the bay next to me just said "check the cap and rotor first kid, 90% of the time it's that." Pulled the cap off and there was green crust all over the terminals inside. New cap and rotor cost me like $30 and the truck runs perfect now. Anyone else got a guy like that who saves you hours with one tip?

2 comments

2 Comments

patricia_singh8117h ago

Distributor caps are always the first thing to check on anything from the 90s. Green crust is pretty standard on those old Ford V8s. But 90% of the time? That's a stretch, maybe 90% of the time on a 97 F150 specifically. I've had plenty of misfires where a cap and rotor didn't fix it, turned out to be a plug wire arcing to the block or a ground strap corroded. Still, for $30 it's a good test, better than throwing parts at it blind.

parkerk5613h ago

Nah, I gotta disagree cap and rotor fixes 9 out of 10 misfires easy.