Nissan Maxima: Really weird driveability problem - LONG-

Having a problem with my 1993 Maxima GXE. (its long and complicated
so please bear with me)

Symptom: Slight off idle hesitation (pretty much all the time – but
more noticeable when I have turned it off and re-started it (such as
going into the Wawa for coffee and then leaving) this is tolerable but
worse is when it rains very heavily (or during the last winter months
here when it snowed) after driving and letting it sit (say overnight
or for long periods) upon driving I cannot maintain throttle I must
give it a lot of gas then back off then it will start to sputter and
backfire so I have to give a lot of gas again, I cannot keep
consistent throttle pressure (such as part throttle and just cruising)
however it idles fine and will not stall! When it does this I can keep
it in park and it will idle fine but upon giving just slight throttle
it will want to stall and sputters and the revs will drop, upon giving
more throttle pressure however it clears up and revs right up

I thought it was water getting into the gas so upon examining under
the car I found a small hole in the rubber hose going from the
overflow tube to the gas tank so it was replaced with the correct
Nissan hose , however recently during a heavy rain (was ok while
driving in the rain that night) but the next morning upon driving it
the symptoms returned however upon sitting for a few hours and driving
again it was completely fine.


What I have replaced, looked at: at first I thought it was water in
gas so gas treatment, etc. was tried, I have replaced all ignition
components (cap,rotor, wires etc) and I cannot find any exposed wires
under the hood.

Whats left: the distributor cap does not have that rubber protective
cap over it –possibly water getting on it then dispersing? Although I
have sprayed it with "wire dryer\protector" , possible pin hole on top
of gas tank? But unsure if water in the tank. It kind of acts like a
bad TPS sensor but I do not get any "check engines" and would this
explain the water connection?

Whew! Anybody ever experience anything like this? Any help is
appreciated!

"Ryan" <com> wrote in message news:<pr9Kc.897$news.atl.earthlink.net>... 


Yeah , sorry forgot to mention, that was one of the first things I
replaced was the fuel filter, never thought of water getting into the
airbox though. Next time it does it I will check inside the airbox &
see if any water is getting in there. I'll go out and get a true
Nissan dist cap and guess I'll scour the J.Yard for a cap for the
distributor. Thanks for the help guys!