3/11/09
Poor performance (not that an aging bus ever has great performance) started me wondering ... messing with my spark plugs led me to be concerned.
I'm can't even remember why I did it. I decided to remove the wire from one of my spark plugs. Not being experienced with engines, this sounds like a bad idea, so, like I said, I'm not sure what prompted me to do it. The funny thing was that when I did it, nothing happened. The engine didn't sputter or shake, it just kept on running. Surprised, I decided to try it on other cylinder's plugs. Each of the other 3 had slightly different reactions, but they all changed the way the engine ran.
You'll see in the video below that when I pull the plug wire off the #1 plug, there is no change in the way the motor sounds or runs. If I pull the wire off of any other plug the motor hiccups, bucks, and backfires. Does this mean that #1's not firing?
I'm pretty sure I'm getting juice to the plug - I think I can see the spark jump from the boot to the plug (and hear the click.) I pulled the plug out and it looks clean and normal (light brown.) Not sure what this mean, but it's definitely time for a compression test
