New thing, need help!

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I guess this would fit on any forum but since it is a thing... Just purchased a 181. It is in great shape. 1973 33500 on the odometer, the 181 was towed most its life and by the looks of the pedals and engine compartment, let alone the pans and seats, it was never driven much of the miles. On to the problem. It seems that at idle cylinder 3 does not fire. Let me expound a little further. Pulled the plug last night and the plug looks fine, no nasty build up as if it had a stuck valve, it was still gaped at .6mm and has not been crushed, rounded or fouled, it looks as if I have the plug pictured in the manual that says "nothing wrong here". I have not done a compression check but that is next. It does not tap, knock, smoke... The EGR has been removed. The Distributor does not have a vacume advance but the carb has 3 vacume "ports" which have been blanked off (sounds like they leak a bit) any ideas?

[bljones]

of course, I am reading your post literally... by "does not fire", i am assuming you meant no spark. If so, then the compression , vacuum ports, etc is not an issue.

[bljones]

Let's start with the basics- have you checked the connections at the plug and at the distributor? if the connections are good, then the only thing i can think of that might be the problem is that the wire itself is bad. swap in a different spark plug wire and see what happens.

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Well, I figured it out. Seems both left hand cyl's were fireing but not very well. That vacume sound was a split in the rubber sleve on the intake manifold. New sleve and the problem was solved. Thank you