1989 Festiva L stalls, hard start....

[LordOfTheCars]

I would have gotten back to this but I spent the better part of the last 3 days not feeling to well and the better part of today in the ER...

I hope to get my *stuff* together and get a pressure tester on it in the next day or two.

[Movin]

my 90 has a hose, and an Aspire I did recently had a hose.

Neither had that symptom

[tls_zx3]

i had all kinds of problems like this when i bought my car. i pulled my pump and there was a 1/4 tank of rust in the bottom of the tank lol. i emptied that out and cleaned it up and put the pump out of my sti in it. runs great now lol.

[LordOfTheCars]

Well it does not just stall anymore...

I did have a problem below 1/2 a tank that when filled ceased... Today I went down a rough country road and on a full tank it was doing the power loss at cruise speed. it drops down and comes back repeatedely... When I changed the sock in the tank the pump was rusty, I think it has some problems.

Sunday I am going to add a fuel pressure guage to te car and drive it to see if the pressure drops... I had no fuel leaking through the regulator. I doubt it is the VAF.

[LordOfTheCars]

Well I took it out today and it stumbled a couple times when it went half way between 3/4 and 1/2 a tank.

I am going in to change the O ring, wondering if it's a strange pump problem... after filling it was well mannered... STRANGE.

[georgeb]

ok, i guess the 89 sending unit is different than the rest of the EFI cars as well... learn something new every day!

That type (with the O ring) is the only kind I've ever seen (2). 93 and 91.

[LordOfTheCars]

If this does not stop the power loss I will be pulling the tank unit back out and I will snap a pic for reference when I replace the O ring.

[FestYboy]

ok, i guess the 89 sending unit is different than the rest of the EFI cars as well... learn something new every day!

[LordOfTheCars]

likely it's the intermediate hose between the pump and top of the sending unit... they like to rot and loose seal.

I pulled it out today, the pump output plugs directly to a steel line with an O ring... the tank sock looked like heck so I changed it, before I unplug the pump from the line I will obtain an O ring selection...

[FestYboy]

likely it's the intermediate hose between the pump and top of the sending unit... they like to rot and loose seal.

[LordOfTheCars]

From 1/2 a tank down perfprmance takes a dive, What ever is going on I will be giving it a look see, could be that the tank sensor sucks and its actually empty or close to empty with a bad sock. What ever it may be I will hav to put some eyes on it.

[georgeb]

There is no hose below the pump, only the sock.

[LordOfTheCars]

I stopped at the 60 and that was because I was pin testing instead
of using it, and yes, you bring back memories!!

I try to convert our training, knowledge and high tech to something
anyone can do...using easily obtainable tools.

I just got an EEC V last year, I don't work at a dealer but I get my fair share of Fords... I picked the box up after I got an escort that had multiple problems in the harness... intermitant no start, no run and no charge all at different times...

Someone did a motor swap and stretched the harness with an engine hoist....

[Movin]

that's called a break out box. Been around since the 80's. I have a 60 pin (EEC-IV) and 104 pin (EEC-V) and adapters for the carb, '89 EFI and '90-'93 EFI. I also have an EEC-IV Data Recorder (cassette recorder!). Ancient technology...

I stopped at the 60 and that was because I was pin testing instead
of using it, and yes, you bring back memories!!

I try to convert our training, knowledge and high tech to something
anyone can do...using easily obtainable tools.

[LordOfTheCars]

Well I have it sorted out...

The stalling was the disturbulator, the stumble was at 1/2 a tank of gas and below, this means a hose below the pump. I filled the tank and took it up to 78 mph.

Tomorrow I will pull the pump and fix the hose.

My delima was I was looking for 1 cause not 2 and thats what made it strange. It acted like spark , then fuel...

This car came out of a Mazda dealers stock, they sold it to a smaller dealer and I bought it. It was considered too expensive to fix. Had it not been parked for 9 months I could have gotten it with a good battery...

Costs...
Car $700
Battery $75
Dist $142
Registering will be $25-$40
Hose I have..
Overall not a bad deal.

PROBLEMS SOLVED

Now on to the A/C and Heat.