Tweet
I have a stock 91. 5 speed. It has been running rough, and starting hard. The lights have been a little dim lately. When driving, the thing will surge and shake, sounds like its missing, and sometimes will backfire. You can floor it at 55 or so, and it still wont accelerate, sometimes it will slow down, flored. You can downshift to 4th and still flored, it will barely maintain 50ish. Then the lights went out for a sec, and came back on. odd, so I started with the battery terminals thinking one was loose. I found that the smaller wire right off the + cable had come off. The car wouldnt start, so I plugged it back together and it did start. Out of curiosity, I disconnected the wire, and to my suprise, the car ran better. (the fuseable links have been removed BTW). The car ran strong with this wire loose.
Tonight I drove the car, and had to touch the wires together in order to start it, then disconnected it to drive. Car ran pretty good, so I stopped, hoked the wire back up, and the lights dimmed, but I figured Id try to see how it ran. As soon as I put the car in gear, it almost quit. If you have ever ran a festiva without an alternator until it died, thats what it acted like. Now here's the funny part, I turned off the lights and it ran perfect. I thought that the alt went, and I was just on battery power, but after 1/4 mile, I turned the lights back on, and the car still ran. The dash lights were as bright as they should be, but when I touched the brakes, or the turn signals, the lighta would blink once, briefly. The headlighs and the dash lights. I was still rolling, so I shut down the engine with the key, and the lights went off, all of them. Dead. I let out the clutch, and restarted it in second gear, and the thing started, and the lights came back on. WTF?
Tonight I drove the car, and had to touch the wires together in order to start it, then disconnected it to drive. Car ran pretty good, so I stopped, hoked the wire back up, and the lights dimmed, but I figured Id try to see how it ran. As soon as I put the car in gear, it almost quit. If you have ever ran a festiva without an alternator until it died, thats what it acted like. Now here's the funny part, I turned off the lights and it ran perfect. I thought that the alt went, and I was just on battery power, but after 1/4 mile, I turned the lights back on, and the car still ran. The dash lights were as bright as they should be, but when I touched the brakes, or the turn signals, the lighta would blink once, briefly. The headlighs and the dash lights. I was still rolling, so I shut down the engine with the key, and the lights went off, all of them. Dead. I let out the clutch, and restarted it in second gear, and the thing started, and the lights came back on. WTF?
Comment