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The '73 squareback that I actually drive quite often has not gotten much care of late. It just gets used. In the past few months, however, it has gotten hard to start and often didn't run well until it got well warmed up. Early this summer I checked the valves, the dwell, and the timing, and even changed the oil, but none of that helped significantly. Recently, my wife's Taurus is down with a bad alternator and she has been driving the Square, making it more important that I make it run better. She took it out this morning for some brief errands, and then I drove it. By the time I got it on the road it was pretty awful. I got it warmed up and had to drive about 10 highway miles, which I thought would be good for it, but it just got worse and worse. IT was hard to start and would die at idle. It seemed to be running on 3 cylinders, and backfiring occasionally. I had visions of clogged fuel injectors. I checked the charging system voltage but that was fine. Finally, I had time this afternoon to pull a spark plug. I have to confess that I've never before seen a spark plug that was so in need of replacement. The center electrode was eroded down to a little bump just sticking out of the ceramic. The gaps were probably close to .060". All the sharp edges, where the spark can jump from, were eroded round. I pulled the rest of the plugs and they were all the same. I checked the SP connectors and the resistor in one of them had gone open. It's actually quite amazing that it would run at all, although the signs were that it was on the verge of not running. I replaced the 4 plugs and the connector and then took it for a drive. Wow, what a difference! I wonder how long those plugs had been in there.... -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~