89 festiva shift lamp problems

[prariewolf]

i have a 89 festiva that will not run when the shift lamp on the dash comes on. sometimes the lamp will be on when i try to start it and it will backfire and not start, but if the shift lamp is off it will start right up.
any ideas?

[FB71]

perform an excorcism...

there's an evil spirit in the distributor cap.

[seanpaintsflames]

My 89 has something like that. The shift light comes on with the check engine light. The car seems to run fine, but failed emissions really bad once the lights came on. I can't be positive that its because of whatever is triggering the lights, but I think so. The weird thing is, I've pressure washed the motor a couple times, and after each time, the shift and engine lights shut off until the motor got to temp. I assume that its an emissions system thing. Is your car carbureted? Maybe a loose wire somewhere, or a sensor that is going bad. Weird.