Carnot Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I'm having some trouble with my recently acquired '81 DL hatch. I usually starts up without any problems and runs fine for a few minutes, then it starts losing power badly. It's bad enough that it will only just barely maintain 55 mph on flat ground. When it does this it seems to run OK at less than about 1/3 throttle, but anything more than that and it starts to stumble and shake. The strange thing is that if I turn the car off and back on again, it runs fine for a while again (although not as long as the first time) and then falls on its face. I've tried changing out the fuel filter (which was in really bad shape) and running some Sea Foam through the carb. Those seemed to improve the overall performance, but the difference between when it's running right and when it's not is still pretty dramatic. I did notice that there is a broken wire that looks like it went to a sensor in the cat. Is that an O2 sensor? Does this somehow have some control over the carb? The only other things I was going to try was to check for vacuum leaks. Any ideas what might be causing this? -Bryce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IdahoJak Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Sounds to me like you have some crud or rust in the gas tank. I had an '86 Trooper that had a rusted gas tank and it did exactly what yours is doing. I finally fixed it by removing the tank and cleaning it out. You might pull the fuel filter off again and see how it looks now. If it is bad again that would seem to confirm what I'm saying. Good luck and let us know what happens. Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guido32 Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 I don't remember if this year came with a cat.. but what you describe sounds like a plugged catalytic converter as I had one the car would start fine, but within a few minutes the back pressure was so bad it would eventually die. Might be something to check.:-\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonas Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 lol poo..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnot Posted August 6, 2006 Author Share Posted August 6, 2006 I don't remember if this year came with a cat.. but what you describe sounds like a plugged catalytic converter as I had one the car would start fine, but within a few minutes the back pressure was so bad it would eventually die. Might be something to check.:-\ I might have to czech that out. There is definitely something there that looks like a cat. It's a large squarish bulge in the exhaust right after the y-pipe joins together. Any other suggestions as to why this might be happening. I can't help but think this has to have something to do with the O2 sensor (if that's what it is). Is there a way to disable the functionality of the O2 feedback control? -Bryce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted August 6, 2006 Share Posted August 6, 2006 Dunno what kind of ignition your cars have over there, but if its points ignition you may want to try replacing the condensor, i had a very similar prob with my '81 and that turned out to be the culprit...... Could also be the ignition coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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