Miata hesitating. HELP!

Hi all



I need some help/advice/opinions again from this group. About 6 months ago I
had the crankshaft pulley, bolt and key replaced because of a wobbling
pulley. Some of the regular guys in this group may remember me asking for
opinions on that too.



Since they were taking everything apart anyway, I told the garage to make
sure they replaced the timing belt and any other belts with new ones, which
they did. I also told them to fit a new fuel filter. Then I got the car back
and on the way home from the garage it seemed to be running fine, as it did
for the one or two 10 minute drives I did over the next couple of days.



Then, on about the third day after getting it back, I decided that I would
treat the car to a new air filter and spark plugs just for the heck of it. I
did this part myself and made sure the plugs were the exact same make and
product number as the old ones and they were gapped right, as per the Haynes
repair manual. I sparingly used some of that silver grease compound around
the threads of the plugs, which I have used on other vehicles I have owned
and serviced in the past.



NEW PROBLEM: It seems that ever since I did my simple DIY service, the Miata
was hesitating and not running smoothly at all. I admit that I should have
looked at the problem earlier, but I was in the middle of relocating from
Wisconsin to Georgia so never got around to it. I then drove the Miata
around a few more times (longer drives) and was hoping that magic would
happen and the hesitating would disappear.no luck. I went to drive it again
the other day and I it finally went buckaroo on me.



SO: I took out the plugs and found that they were all covered in some kind
of fine black soot (fouled plugs I guess). I took it to a local NAPA garage
and the guy said that other than the black soot, the metal/electrode were in
good condition and they seemed to be gapped properly. By the way, I then
bought new plugs and double checked that they were gapped right and got the
Miata running again, but its still hesitating and I'm certain it's going to
go buckaroo on me again, just as it did the first time.



MY QUESTION (I know.finally):

1) What could be causing the hesitating; could having the crankshaft pulley,
belts etc. replaced have caused this because the timing was not set properly
after the belts etc. were replaced?



2) Could it be that I'm an idiot who did something wrong when replacing the
plugs (don't answer that part), considering that I never noticed a problem
after getting it back from the garage.



What should I be looking at, and be expecting to hear from a garage when
they diagnose the problem?

I'm hoping its just going to be a matter of having the timing corrected.



Thanks in advance for your thoughts.



Jitendra



'95 Red