stalled in massive amounts of water

So last night when I was taking her to the top of a small mountain and back, I got a little carried away. I was flying through all the puddles on the way down soaking everyone in nasty smelly stagment water. I was doing donuts in three feet of water. i was dipping my bumpers in water. etc, etc, etc. On one of the last puddles, the jeep stalled out. I didn't blame the jeep, i couldn't believe it made it that far. I have a problem with water in my cap, so I pulled it. the rotor was fine, but there was a little water on the contacts of the cap. dried it, still no go. Pulled a plug to check for spark. we saw two orange sparks in the amount of time we should have seen 30. obviously spark and not out of gas or water in the air intake. we could not get it started at all. my friend towed me home. this morning she started within 2 seconds again. I'm wondering what got wet so in the future, I don't need my friends wrangler to tow me home. Any ideas? Its got a 258 and it was definitly having problems sparking.

 

You could have arc-over on the coil wire, for example. Condensation in the cap is only one source of shorts. You need to have wire boots that are tight enough to keep water out, and wires that aren't cracked and old.

 

:iagree:
Water in the plug wire boots is a common thing while playing in water. A dab of grease inside each boot helps alot.

Of course not playing Finding Nemo is the best way.
Right Steve? R)

 

Don't use regular grease, though. You can get silicone dielectric grease at Napa. Other stores may carry it.

 

carry something that displaces water and evaporates quickly with you as well. Some people will use wd-40 I've heard, but I'd just get some Electrical/Electronics spray cleaner, that way next time you can just spray everything you have a question about, let it dry for a few minutes, then go.

 

Thats a good idea, Im gonna buy some ignition dryer stuff. The pos. and neg. terminals on the coil arn't affected by water as long as its a nice tight connection, right? I'll get grease to. SO i just load every boot on both sides of the wires with grease? Can I over grease it? The dielectric grease is conductive? Also, I heard you can take a coffee can, cut out the bottom, slide it over your distributor like a skirt, then duct tape the upper lip of the coffee can to the distributor cap. This gives water a tuff time getting in. I'm gonna try it.

 

No, dielectric grease is NOT conductive. it will however, lubricate, insulate and waterproof electrical contacts and components. It would be a good thing to use on your plugs and where your dist. cap seals to the base. You don't want to use alot of it on your wire boots, just a dab to seal them at the towers.

 

As far as dielectric grease/silicone - I'm a ham radio amateur and have a a two way radio license for my business, and when I build an antenna, I put as much dielectric grease/silicone in the connection as I can to keep the water out. I have got two antennas up here in N. CA that sees a lot of rain and snow and no problems for ten years. I just started working on a '73' CJ5 that had one tailight completely corroded from rust so I am thinking that a dab of this stuff in the light bulb sockets might be a good idea? What do you all think?

 

That dielectric grease is mainly a corrosion preventative, we use it in the telecom business on all electrical connections to prevent corrosion and failure. I have some that has so much powdered copper in it it looks like a copper paste, so I'd bet that's fairly conductive.

Yeah, it's good stuff on a vehicle. Use a little brush or some Q-tips and put it on all ring terminals, bullet terminals, light sockets, battery and ground connections, coil wires, plug wires, etc. Don't gob it on, just makes a mess. You only need a thin film of it. Get everything as clean as you can first, get all the corrosion off if you can. Steel wool and ScotchBrite are great for this (but DON'T use steel wool on anything live! If it gets to ground, oh boy!). This will help keep corrosion from coming back.

Whenver I strip a wire or cable to crimp on a terminal or lug, I'll put a little grease (we call it No-Ox) on the wire before I put on the lug and crimp it. That will help prevent corrosion from wicking up inside the wire itself, that causes a lot of failures and teeth gnashing.