No start problem- wet dist. cap?

[1991240xs]

Ok so I cleaned up my engine and stuff, covered the sparkplug holes and everything. unhooked the battery so i wouldn't short anyhting bfeore i started my cleaning. Since the board was down last night I went to freshalloy and someone said I might have water in my dist. cap. My problems are, no start, only cranks over, backfires a lot,...even fire out the throttle body!...so ya...what do yall think?

[MasterMan]

woah thats odd.. i cleaned my engine bay and didnt cover anything.. tho i took a lawn blower to it after i hosed it down.. what did u do to dry the bay out? and did u take the spark plug wires out? if u did maby u got them out of order?

[1991240xs]

lol..nah i didn't take them out..just covered them up?(simple bag and tape over them)...i even went so far as replacing my spark plugs(needed to anyway)...but now I'm thinking it's a fuel problem ....oh well..now i get my car fixed for christmas instead of any real preasents

[1991240xs]

any ideas people?

[drjohn]

Sounds like water in the dist. If water gets in the cap it shorts or water gets on the trigger wheel and can cause misfire problems. Take the cap off and turn a hair drier on low heat and dry the dist. out.

[1991240xs]

ya i did thatgot it to run in i guess what's called diagnostic mode...couldn't rev past 3 grand....but i got it to the shop...he prolly won't even charge if it's just resetting the ecu..but i'm also getting oil leaks fixed for christmas..woowoo .but thanks...using wire dry i got it to atleast run to save me 40 dollars of towing it to the shop..this place is great-