it was running fine until i got to school idling high (normal in the morning) then the idle dropped and it started running really bad. i parked and got out to look. there was blue smoke coming out of the exhaust and there was a small puddle of gas where it had seemed to have dripped out of the exhaust. how bad is it? what happened? is it going to blow up in the parking lot?

help please

Hey! Its early. You only waited 12 minutes! Any way, give us a few more specifics please. Fuel injection or carbs? Have you tried to restart it? I doubt it will "blow up" but I guess anythings possible. Have you done anything to the car recently?

You have a bad plug wire.

I ordered new ones and they will be here tomorrow.

are you sure thats the problem? is it ok to drive home or not ? its fuel injection. replaced throttle cable

Is the CHT lead still connected? Sounds like it came loose. It is the single blk lead that comes off the #3 cyl and has a single spade connector. Any gas leaking in the engine bay? If not, I doubt you have a fire risk but check carefully.

It should be okay to drive it home if you come straight home. If you want, get a ride home and you and I will go get it when I get home tonight.

where is the cht lead ? any pics of one?

Cylinder Head Temp lead is fine.

I will show it to you when we replace ignition wires.

If one spark plug isnt firing, 25% of your fuel gets dumped in the exhaust manifold.

not the spark plug wires but where the wire connects to the plug doesnt look right you can wiggle it with your finger and the car runs the same even when this plug isnt connected. does this mean it is a bad spark plug?

it also seems as if the plug wire doesnt fit on the spark plug itself it comes off very easily, like its not even on.

Sounds like you found it. The wire is threaded into the connector. You can turn the connector clockwise to make a better connection with the wire.

The two need to make a good solid connection, otherwise you won't get good spark on that cylinder ...

Andy

its not a very good pic but the inside of this plug is bowl shaped. how does this work.

the spark plug is threaded

There's supposed to be a small spring clip in the 'bowl'. When pushed onto the sparkplug end, you should be able to feel it snap over the threads ...

Like i said above, make sure the wire is tight where it goes into the plug connector.
Andy

i dont see why this plug is different from the others. this one plug doesnt have a small spring clip

one plug is sopposed to be different from the others right?

Your running on three cylinders. Get some new plug wires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pull another plug wire that seems to be staying in place. Look inside it and you should see the missing clip part. Just don't mix the wires when putting them back on.

we did get new plug wires but the piece of the wire that connects to the spark plug wont connect to the second spark plug and looks different from the rest of these pieces.

the 2nd and 3rd plugs are the same and if they grasp the threads on the spark plugs be stripped

The plug wire insulators with the spring clips inside will push on and seem like they're stripping the threads but don't. I had a new set just recently where one of the wire spring clips became dislodged when I pulled the wire off. I was able to put it back in place with some needle nose pliers and make it work. How does the wire look different?
Jsaum

it doesnt go on very far and doesnt click like the thers when you put them on. also when you put this plug insulator on it is very loose no matter how hard i push on it

I can't really tell from your picture, but does that spark plug have cap on the end? Not sure what's it called, but when you get new spark plugs, you have to unscrew the cap to show the threads on the portion of the plug where the wires attach. That looks like that cap is on, but hard to tell. Would explain why the wires aren't going on it.

Click to view attachment

I saw the same thing. Wonder if there is any correlation between this and the missing clip? Hmmm

ill have to check tomorrow, if this is true how would i unscrew the cap it must ba very small.

Remove the plug and unscrew it by hand. I doubt it's on that tight. Don't over tighten the plug when you put it back in. Just make it snug. If you go too much you can strip the threads on the head.