GOOD NEWS UPDATE! Was: Only running on five cylinders

["Payne" <bpayne@xxxx>]

I've spent the last couple of hours going through everything again, and I
decided to just tear everything apart and start over. I took everything
apart down to the rotor, and slowly put it all together again. It was much
easier the second time, although it's not something I want to repeat anytime
soon. Once I was sure everything was secure, I turned the key. She
sputtered a little bit and protested, but finally came to life. I let it
idle a little bit, but she was running quite rough so I turned it off. I
checked all my hose connections again and a little later decided to start it
up. It fired up almost immediately this time, but still ran rough. There
was a loud hissing coming from the intake, and I found it was a vacuum leak
at the "w" pipe where the gasket had separated. I could hold my finger over
the edge and it would stop and smooth out a little. I am currently using
silicone sealant until I can order a proper gasket. I'll wait a little
while to see if it holds.

I'm just so happy that It's running again. I'm still not sure what was
preventing it from running, it seems to defy logic. It had to be something
small that I didn't get a good connection on. I can't thank the people on
this list enough for taking the time to help me! I love to see the kind of
closeness in this community that you have demonstrated. It just makes me
more proud to own this beautiful car.

In a way, it was like my car was trying to tell me something by running
poorly. When I moved the air meter/fuel distributor assembly, I found that
the coolant hose had pooched out and was starting to leak. If I had driven
anymore, I probably would have lost a lot more coolant. Even though I
didn't have much fun with the tune up, I'm glad this wasn't overlooked any
longer. I found a few other little things that need fixing, but nothing
that is too pressing of a matter. At least my car loves me again. First
she gets me out of jury duty, and now this. It was just a tough learning
experience along the way.

Thank you all so much!

payne