Talked to the mechanic...

[geezerstiva]

o2 sensor might help, it helped some on both of mine, but i never could get rid of that bucking entirely. it got to where it wasnt really bad, but it never went completely away. i think it was a bad design somewhere. somebody on here said something about a clutch switch one time, but i never tried to mess with that--mine wasnt that bad.

[econoaddict]

well i would have laughed at him when he said 200 to rebuild the carb. and ten asked him what he was smoking, so i could sell it and make a huge profit. becasue 200 is a bit much i would think to rebuild a carb for a festiva. best bet is to either get some on from teh forums to rebuild it fro you or buy a used one for alot cheaper than 200.

$200 is actually a pretty damn good deal.
Especially if the mechanic says thats the problem and it WILL be running properly when he is done for the $200.

Book time calls for 3hrs to remove the carb, install the kit, reinstall and setting the basic adjustments.
So the shop rate at the above qoute is right at 66-67 an hour, well below average around my area.

Not many shops around here will even touch a carb now-a-days and most charge higher than normal rates to do so. We charge our normal hourly rate on carbs, we see no reason to charge higher.

Not sure about the above mentioned shop but we also include (at no extra $$) tuning the carb on a 5 gas machine, not just a quick basic adjust.

The most over looked item on a carb during rebuild is the throttle shaft bushings, you can toss a kit at it but if the shaft bushings are bad it does no good at all.

[hawkdoc60]

Daniel,

Snatch up another carb and throw it on your car. See if it runs better. Whether it does or doesn't, send your carb with the rebuild kit I gave you to Hawk, throw him a bone for his troubles. Then you have a spare or throw it on and make the other a spare. Also, find another distributor for a spare. Sorry to hear you're having problems with the car, bro. I feel bad considering I sold it to you. But like I told you, I just swapped the distributor and did the basic cap, wires, plugs thang. Get this lil' glitch fixed and you have you a good car for a long time. I'll keep my eyes open for a carb and distributor.

If you want to go this route, let me know, I'll rebuild it and ship it back good as new.

[hawkdoc60]

well i would have laughed at him when he said 200 to rebuild the carb. and ten asked him what he was smoking, so i could sell it and make a huge profit. becasue 200 is a bit much i would think to rebuild a carb for a festiva. best bet is to either get some on from teh forums to rebuild it fro you or buy a used one for alot cheaper than 200.

I would agree with you except most shops charge around $70-75 an hour for labor an it will take at least a couple hours, not counting soak time.

[XFSE71]

Just for the record, I don't think your carb is the problem. I would go buy a $3 distributor rotor first before I overhauled the carb. The rotor will burn through and arc to ground on the distributor shaft when under a heavy load like take off causing a misfire and stumble. It happened to VIN # 30.

[Ogrestiva]

I'm tellin' ya, I fought the same problem for about a year and the oxygen sensor helped more than anything else. Blew my mind! I rebuilt 2 carbs and either one made it run better but the bucking was still there. Don't mess with your idle mixture unless you absolutely have too.

someone had already tried to do that before Levitan bought it and failed, so it needed to be fixed anyways, so I had the mechanic fix that with the timing. I'll probably try the o2 sensor, but right now it runs fine, like I said, just a slight buck.

[zoe60]

I'm tellin' ya, I fought the same problem for about a year and the oxygen sensor helped more than anything else. Blew my mind! I rebuilt 2 carbs and either one made it run better but the bucking was still there. Don't mess with your idle mixture unless you absolutely have too.

[Ogrestiva]

Maybe changing the O2 sensor would fix the glitch like Zoe mentioned. I'd still buy another carb and distibutor for backup.

yeah, someone pm'ed me about another carb. and don't feel bad at all, I knew that the carb probably needed something when I bought it. It still runs great especially after I swapped out the fuel filter, it's totally drivable, it just bucks a little in 2nd.

[Levitan]

Maybe changing the O2 sensor would fix the glitch like Zoe mentioned. I'd still buy another carb and distibutor for backup.

[Ogrestiva]

Daniel,

Snatch up another carb and throw it on your car. See if it runs better. Whether it does or doesn't, send your carb with the rebuild kit I gave you to Hawk, throw him a bone for his troubles. Then you have a spare or throw it on and make the other a spare. Also, find another distributor for a spare. Sorry to hear you're having problems with the car, bro. I feel bad considering I sold it to you. But like I told you, I just swapped the distributor and did the basic cap, wires, plugs thang. Get this lil' glitch fixed and you have you a good car for a long time. I'll keep my eyes open for a carb and distributor.

I ran some more carb cleaner through it and changed the fuel filter and it seems to run better, but it still jumps a bit.

[zoe60]

Change your O2 sensor first. Thats the main thing that fixed my '89, although I did replace almost every other ignition and fuel delivery part first. Timing helps too. Mine runs perfect now.

[Mizery]

well i would have laughed at him when he said 200 to rebuild the carb. and ten asked him what he was smoking, so i could sell it and make a huge profit. becasue 200 is a bit much i would think to rebuild a carb for a festiva. best bet is to either get some on from teh forums to rebuild it fro you or buy a used one for alot cheaper than 200.

[Levitan]

Daniel,

Snatch up another carb and throw it on your car. See if it runs better. Whether it does or doesn't, send your carb with the rebuild kit I gave you to Hawk, throw him a bone for his troubles. Then you have a spare or throw it on and make the other a spare. Also, find another distributor for a spare. Sorry to hear you're having problems with the car, bro. I feel bad considering I sold it to you. But like I told you, I just swapped the distributor and did the basic cap, wires, plugs thang. Get this lil' glitch fixed and you have you a good car for a long time. I'll keep my eyes open for a carb and distributor.

[Tim]

That's exactly what I've been doing and yeah, I can live with it for the most part, but I don't want to put excess strain on the vehicle.

I drove mine for <30k like that. It never gave me a single problem as a result of the bucking, and I wasn't the nicest driver. When I sold the car with 220k or so, it was still going strong.


-Tim

[Ogrestiva]

He adjusted the timing issue and the idle speed. he said that he wouldn't know exactly the problem until he opened it up, but it's probably either a warned down part or a gaskit, or a washer or just a bunch of gunk somewhere.