i live pretty far out in the country and after a good snow/rain with puddles/drift in the road if i go through them at anything besides a crawl my pickup decides it wants to sputter out and i have to wait 10-15mins before it will start it sounds like the distributor is getting wet but i cant figure an answer to keep it from getting wet any advice?

 

You can't. A solution is to use WD-40. Spray the inside of the cap and rotor and you should be fine. I spray it on all electrical connections inside the engine bay. The name is literally "water displacement 40th attempt". It is meant to displace water and inside the cap it coats the contacts (or any metallic surface) and prevents the water from short circuiting the spark.

 

i thought about that but what really confuses me is when i had my 1991 dakota i could go into water that was almost coming into the door and splashing everywhere and never had a problem once :$ when spraying wd 40 in the cap how long does it actually last?

 

I usually only do it when I change caps/rotors. It became a habit when I turned my 68 Riviera into a brick by washing the turned off motor. When someone finally told me to try that and it worked instantly I just made it a habit with all electrical connections from that point forward. Once has always been enough for me but in your case maybe getting a small can to keep in the glove box would be a good idea?

 

using WD-40 like said above is a good idea. i mean a great idea. i have all so found that sealing the air vent in the cap with JB-weld works good as well.

 

i used NP-1 and sealed off the vent on the top but didnt help anything so ill try and use wd40 and go through some puddles and hopefully make it out lol

 

I'd try to work out how the water is getting in, it shouldn't unless you are submerging it or using a pressure hose on the motor. Could be your cap or distributor body is cracked.

 

ya i guess im not 100% sure its the cap i guess maybe the wires or coil? is there any good way of testing this? maybe a spray bottle of water and spraying it on the cap, wires, plugs, coilor would that be a bad thing?

 

No there are better safer ways. Try your auto parts store see what they will test on the vehicle and what you have to take off. I'm not a pro in spite of the website putting that under my name but I know there are tests a mechanic can do to see if you have a ground problem or something is shorting out when you hit the wet. I just don;t know what they are.

 

Carry a can of WD40 in the truck.

You can pretty well seal up everything with dielectric grease--seal the boots on the wires, the vent, and the edge of the cap. You're right, tho, it shouldn't be doing this. It should be impervious to any amount of water.

I'd probably suggest a new cap and rotor, maybe new wires,too.