I bought a 1976 Dodge Aspen station wagon new. I think it was the first year for the Aspen, if I recall. Dodge had horribly bad quality control. You can't believe the things that I took that car back to the dealer for under repairs, new paint job, bad water temperature sensor, leaking windshield, new carpet, clattering valves, leaking rear main seals, just to name a few..
anyway, after all the bugs were worked out, I loved that car. I put a dual exhaust on it, Edlebrock manifold, and a four barrel carb.
I had this 18 foot travel trailer at the time, and pulled it from Nevada to Tennessee one summer.
We dropped down into Nashville and hit Interstate 40. About that time, we hit this large bump. All of a sudden, the engine is backfiring like crazy everytime I would accelerate.
So I get to East TN to my mothers house. I have some local shop to run a diagnostics on the engine.. I think they told me the plug wires were bad. Swapped those, it still backfired under acceleration.
Changed plugs, same thing. New points? Or did that car have no points? I can't remember now, but I think it did. Same thing, backfiring. Inspected the distributor cap about a bazillilon times, nothing.
I finally broke down and took it to a Dodge/Chrysler dealer in Knoxville. They said they would take care of the problem. Finally, a couple of hours later, I get the car back... no backfiring, but it had no power at all.
So I stop, get out and look and see that the vacuum advance line was not connected. So I connect that back up, and it starts backfiring again. I go back to the dealer and raise holy hell with them, since they charge me about $100 for that fix..
They apologize, take the car back in for another couple of hours, give it back to me and tell me it's fixed. I go drive the car off.. by this time they are closing.... no back firing, but still no power.
I get out and look, the vacuum advance line is connected, but I see this little buldge in the line very close to where it connects to the distributor. They had shoved a steel ball or a ball bearing down in the line to plug it up, and reconnected the line
Then they tell me that the vacuum advance on the distributor is bad... oh, and they can't order just the diaphram, I have to get a whole new distributor..
Get the car back, new distributor, start driving home.. no backfire, but no power.
So when I get home, I start looking and see the vacuum liine is connected, and no little buldge where it was plugged before. After much looking, I see that the buldge in the distributor vacuum advance line has moved from the end of the tube to the middle of the tube. I take the line off and sure enough it's plugged up with a ball bearing about half way down the line.
So I start thinking... I've changed everything there is to change, plugs, points, coil, distributor.... the only thing that didn't get changed was the distributor cap. I pull it off, and inspect it for the bazillionth time.. but this time, I pull the wires off and take it to some bright sunlight. No cracks, or carbon tracking or wear, but sure enough, just this little tiny spot by one of the electodes was broken off.. and I do mean tiny, maybe like 3/32 of an inch.
I get a new distributor cap, put it on, remove the plug from the vacuum advance line and all is well.
I go back to the dealer the next day, curse at him pretty bad, and he refunds my money..
Ahhh, the hassles of the good ole days. LOL