January 18, 200521 yr Background: My father in law needed a cheap car to get him through the winter, 4wd was a bonus. I loaned him one of my hatchbacks until we could find something else. Then I came across a '85 4x4 Turbowagon here in the marketplace. The price was higher than he wanted to spend and it had some engine trouble. (Wouldn't fire on all cylinders.) After waiting on it a little while, I decided to go for it and we made an offer and bought ourselves a car with a few gremlins. Before I could get my hatchback returned I had to make the car roadworthy. Driving it the 40 miles back to my house proved to be quite the task. The car wouldn't idle and refused to accelerate beyond 40 mph. ( I got it to do 50 downhill once though) I was starting to think we might have bought a car that needed an immediate engine transplant. In the few days I had before I could start looking the car over, I had time to do a little reading on the board and get an idea of what I was getting myself into. Yesterday I finally had some time off to dive into the problem. For anyone wanting to play along: Based on the fact that it wouldn't idle, was hard to start and had zero power. (Remember, it's only firing on 3 cylinders) Feel free to guess what I found the problem to be. I'll post the answer to what I found later today.
January 18, 200521 yr The driver... Sorry...had to do it. OK my guess is a bad fuel injector or plugged fuel filter. Matt
January 18, 200521 yr The driver... Sorry...had to do it. OK my guess is a bad fuel injector or plugged fuel filter. Matt like nothing to go on, im going with the old rats nest in the air filter
January 18, 200521 yr I'm going to go with old gas or water in the lines and a fouled spark plug. Can't wait to find out...
January 18, 200521 yr Author A couple of you are really close, I'll post the answer before I leave work this afternoon.
January 18, 200521 yr Author Ok here goes; Yes it was simple, very simple. The injector for the cylinder that was not firing was...unplugged. It now runs superb with plenty of power. The tranny shifts into 3rd a little slow, but I'm going to try and find an RX tranny to put into it. Anyone who has a lead on one, drop me a note. Needless to say, my father in law can keep my hatch for a while longer. I'm thinking big for this wagon. Thank you all for playing along.
January 18, 200521 yr that happened on the first RX i had. Drove it home like that...wiggled wires...and voila! its alive at 100% power.
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now