GT-40 Cough, cough, maybe pull a skier

1997 SN GT-40, 1400 hours. we've had a situation for several years where we'd ski, ski, ski, shut off the boat, start it up over and over successfully, then at some point in the day it would start, but cough, sputter and blow some black smoke. A restart would generally "fix" it so it was mostly an annoyance.

Recently the issues got worse with an intermittent miss while towing a skier to a continual miss then barely a start . I tried to read codes but got none. No warning light was illuminated on the dash. I tested the fuel pressure and it stayed within spec at idle and towing a skier while the miss continued. I turned towards ignition with new plugs, cap, rotor and wires. Miss remained. THEN, armed with a new Hall effect sensor I looked closely at the inside of the distributor. Gee, those look like metal shavings.. Where the hell would metal shavings come from inside the disty?? Look at that I can wiggle the old Hall effect sensor. I pull off the rotor and metal piece that has the cut outs for the Hall Effect sensor to find the inside of the tabs eaten by rubbing against the loose sensor... "Hmmmm.. this is probably not good".... I decide to replace the entire disty from the local parts store for 93 bucks... MISSING SOLVED!!!!!!!!!

Time will tell if the occasional sputter is solved also,

I also had to replace a bad ECM, but I think that was an entirely separate issue. Old ECM would no longer command the fuel pumps on for key on. Replacement ECM turned them on just fine.

I replaced my dizzy last week as well. PIP was loose so I'm sure that was contributing to an uneven idle issue I've had since I bought the boat. This is a fairly well known issue with the same era Mustangs & Lightnings that use the exact same distributor.   Along with new sensors and the correct wiring she purrs nicely now.... Ok, well she more growls than purrs

wetskier2000 wrote: The Spectra part number was FD12..

You might want to double check that Spectra number since an FD 12 fits a v-6 Ford

I'd add 2 and come up with an FD 14 myself

The FD 14 has been used by others here on CCF too.