This morning, my car started runing crappy. Taking off in first... it just died and i had to restart it. After that, it would jump alot when accelerating and backfired quite a bit... there's usually just a puut puut when changing gears, but when it's cold it does it throughout most of the rev range. Constantly feels like it's gonna die... idles a little rough too. Not REALLY rough, it just sorda floats around 900 rpm more than it usually does. It almost feels like it's not running on every cylinder... but I dunno. It runs just fine once it's warmed up, but it has to be completely warmed up for all the symptoms to disappear. I'm thinking bad carb. Any of you guys have any idea what the hell is going on? I have an off road video I need to make this weekend..... I don't want to put my car in the shop. Thanks guys.

Sounds like a classic choke problem to me...

But before jumping to that, I would still run some fuel system cleaner thru the gas, and change the fuel filter. Also, spray the sh*t out of the carb itself with Gumount. This will all but eliminate dirt as a possible cause.

If this checks out, you'll want to observe the operation of the choke as the car warms up. If it doesn't open/close properly, it could be either a mechanical or electrical problem. Check back here for more info on troubleshooting the choke, if you suspect that it is the cause.

Replacing the carb should be the last resort. They are much more reliable than people give them credit for.

good luck, John

Thanks, I'll definitely check into that before thinking about replacing it.

Just got my car out of the shop, they fixed the heater hose, a broken engine mount, put an accelerator pump in, flushed the coolant system, and gave me the anti-backfire valve to put on the car. It needs new sparkplugs and sparkplug wires, rotor button, disty cap. They told me it's only running on 3 cylinders, and I believe them cuz it runs like absolute crap. I'm gonna put a new fuel pump in cuz I KNOW that's about to go out, and fuel filter as well. Why would I not be getting a fire out of the first cylinder? That's the one they said had no spark. They also said the disty needed replaced, but I didn't think distys ever really needed replaced... do I smell BS? lol. Thanks to anybody who can come up with any ideas on anything else I should try to take care of.

They also said the disty needed replaced, but I didn't think distys ever really needed replaced... do I smell BS? lol. Thanks to anybody who can come up with any ideas on anything else I should try to take care of.

depends - if it is a carbed car, they can go bad, but they are rebuildable - not firing on one cylinder points to something like a bad cap, wire or plug though because the mechanism that makes the coil fire is the same for all four cylinders - the disty pickup should be fine then - check for free play on the disty shaft - if there is any, you need to have it rebuilt/replaced - that said, I have worked on a number of cars at this point and have never seen one fail, so I think it is unlikely

 

if it is a carbed car, it sounds a lot like the expierence I had when my carb died - was very difficult to rebuild (I tried 5 times following specs...), so I trashed it and went SPFI - been pleased since, but it is a good bit of work

 

Good Luck

SD:

 

Just got my car out of the shop, they fixed the heater hose, a broken engine mount, put an accelerator pump in, flushed the coolant system, and gave me the anti-backfire valve to put on the car. It needs new sparkplugs and sparkplug wires, rotor button, disty cap.

 

All's good so far...

 

They told me it's only running on 3 cylinders, and I believe them cuz it runs like absolute crap. I'm gonna put a new fuel pump in cuz I KNOW that's about to go out, and fuel filter as well. Why would I not be getting a fire out of the first cylinder? That's the one they said had no spark. They also said the disty needed replaced, but I didn't think distys ever really needed replaced...

 

Well, "only 3 cylinders" sounds bad, but I wouldn't get too freaked until you do the ignition service (as recommeded by the service manager). You could also do the plugs, wires cap and rotor yourself. This could easily solve the symptoms you describe.

 

do I smell BS? lol. Thanks to anybody who can come up with any ideas on anything else I should try to take care of

 

Yes and no. They are not outright lying to you, but they are not being straight either.

Rule of thumb with cars...those problems that seem worse are the easiest to fix...

good luck, John

 

ok..... changed plugs and wires, but i put the crappy autolite plugs in from autozone and a new disty cap too.... also cheapo. tomorrow i'm gonna go buy some quality parts and just keep those for spares. my question is.... since I put those plugs in.... i'm noticing a slight smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe... I'm thinking it's probably just because I have crappy plugs. it also seems to stumble at lower rpms more than it did before. maybe there's a vacuum leak in there somewhere from where he was moving stuff around under the hood?? and it still jerks alot when you give it alot of gas. engine mount? thanks for clearing this up for me guys.

The Autolites aren't the best choice, but they are adequete as far as plugs go. The cap is probably ok too. What about the wires? Have you done anything about those? If you want to troubleshoot by elimination you'll heve to eliminate that possibility.

 

John

the wires they gave me weren't long enough, so i just put the old ones on..... i'm gonna have to buy some new ones today and see what happens.... maybe that's the problem... i'll keep you updated

I don't know what your budget is like, but I'd invest in a good quality set, if at all possible. Good wires really do make a difference.

Most of the cheapo sets don't fit well, and deteriorate quickly. Sure, some of them have long warranties, but don't let that fool you. You'll just be replacing one bad set with another. If you must buy a house brand from one of the discount stores, always buy the "premium" grade.

A quality set should easily last 100K +. I personally like NGK's best, and would recommend them highly.

good luck, John

I picked up some NGK at nappa, gonna get an NGK disty cap too... and pick up the wires later because they had to order them. I also noticed the tube going from the cat to the intake hose of the carburetor was ripped. what exactly does that thing do? and where is my ASV? thanks for the help.... my baby should be back on the road in no time ;]

 

Jordan

ok... I put some NGK spark plugs in today with some NGK spark plug wires. The plugs are in all the way, the wires are on the plugs all the way and they're all going to their correct places. all the connections to the coil, all the vacuum hoses to the carb as far as I know are all connected. I spend 4 hours trying to figure out what the prob was... so here's the prob. It simply won't start... I think it's squirting gas fine cuz i had the cover off the carb and it was blowing the air/gas mixture out the top in frequent puffs... and it would ocassionally run for a sec and then just die. I put the old plugs on and managed to get it to idle... but it felt like it was running on 3 cylinders. what's going on? bad carb? bad plug? they're brand new..... and it struck me as odd that it would actually idle with the old plug wires on there. Thanks anybody who know what's wrong.

how about your dist cap and rotor?

 

have you checked for spark?

 

John

thanks guys.... i got it running, lol..... well.... it still seems to smoke. do I just need to adjust my mixture? i'll do a compression test sometime during this coming week to make sure it's not my piston rings. Thanks for bearing with me guys.... lol.

old symptoms turning up again.... jumping really bad when on the throttle... last time the mechanic told me it was the accelerator pump. Do I need ANOTHER carb rebuild? and the smoke is getting worse..... new disty cap, plugs, and plug wires. Engine rebuild? Hope to GOD not... lol.