2tall2slow

98 Laredo, inline 6. Cold crank idles somewhat rough. Drop into gear(under load) very rough idle. Start to drive it and the roughness stays noticeable until I gather some speed somewhere after 2nd gear. Drives good, shifting smooth. Come to a stop after engine warm, rough idle gone. Read a lot of threads similar to my problem, but haven't found anything concrete. BTW, no CEL. Here is where I am at: New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, upstream o2, crankshaft sensor all within last 6 months. Today took off throttle body, cleaned thoroughly, along with IAC sensor. Ran fuel treatment. I still have a few ideas,, but I am looking to the knowledge of the forum to possibly narrow it down. As we all know, rough idle can be triggered by almost anything on our jeeps. Insight greatly appreciated. Workin' man doesn't have money to spend.

freegdr

Just because check engine lights not on don't mean a codes not stored have it checked b4 throwing money at it....

2tall2slow

I had checked for codes, but cpm didn't store any. after all, it was another bad distributor cap. What is it with these things? Cheap crap. A word to the wise..no matter how much money you spend on plugs and wires and caps, or how recent. got a rough idle? check 'em. trying to justify that money spent may only prolong your problems.

dave1123

Again, my experience with GM cars comes into play. Cheap distributor caps are thin and use aluminum contacts. Always use premium caps with brass contacts. The aluminum contacts get eaten away faster and increase the rotor gap enough to drop the voltage at the plugs.

A friend needed a cap for his HEI Chevy 350. He went to Autozone and Advanced and only found caps that were so thin you could crush them with your hands. I took him to NAPA and they had 3 different caps for his truck. One was the same, thin and cheesey. One was heavier but still had aluminum contacts. The third was heavy and had brass contacts. He didn't want to go to NAPA because he thought they would be expensive but the premium cap was only $1.50 more than Autozone.

That was 3 years ago and for his plow truck. It's still on it.

I also had a problem with Autolite wires on my wife's Dodge K-car. They only lasted a week and started shorting out against the engine any place they touched metal. I put the old Mopar wires back on it until I got another brand. I don't remember which they were, but I think they were Delco.

Bustedback

You still have a running K car Dave? I've always wanted to take a plain old K car and transplant a twin turbo Stealth motor into it. It would be the ultimate sleeper.

dave1123

No, unfortunately she slid it sideways into a tree many years ago. Black ice.

The factory car I liked was the Cosworth Vega. Chevy only built about 200 of them and you had to special order it. I saw one in a showroom that hadn't been picked up yet.

The K-car was a "transportation module". Not really a car. It did help bail out Chrysler, however. The Caravan was the big seller. I thought about putting a Hemi in the cargo area with rear wheel drive. Just a brain fart.