My Dak used to do this - turned out is was the plug wires arcing. The
arcing wasn't bad enough at idle that you'd notice it, but under load at
speed, it would cause the engine to miss. I guess if things were just
right, and the engine was only hitting on 6 or 7 cylinders, it might try to
drop out of OD to make up for the lost power.
Here's what to do: At night, go drive your Dak around the block a few times
(this is important, because a hot engine is more likely to arc than a cold
engine), then park it in your garage. If you don't have a garage, try to
find a buddy with a garage. This is important because it has to be
absolutely pitch dark (you can generally see arcing in low-light, but you
need pitch dark to see if there's any cross-fire). With the engine running
in total darkness (don't forget to disable that underhood courtesy light),
look very carefully all around the wires. Pay close attention to where the
wires enter the spark plug guards (this is where mine were leaking - I
removed the guards permanently) and where the wires bunch up together on top
of the distributor.
Hope this helps......
'92 Dak CC 2wd 318 3.55
'84 GoldWing Interstate
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:26 EDT