Jerking and Stalling, now not even starting

[buffyisveryfuzzy]

My Festiva, 1989 L 4 speed manual, is no longer starting. The problems occurred this morning when I tried to move it into the garage. It idled really crappy then when i would put it in gear to get it moving it would start jerking and ultimately stall. It ran perfectly fine yesterday. I took the air filter out of it and it started running perfectly, the air filter was bad, its getting replaced. Later, after the good drive of the day the jerking happened again and now it wont even start, it just turns over. What is wrong? does it just need a tune up?

[FestYboy]

replace fuel filter first, then inspect dizzy cap for moisture/debris

[1988redfordfestiva]

is it carbed ? if so i bet the little screen inside the carb is plugged i just replaced mine and mine starts just need to know where some lines go

[pwgus]

uh, hopefully u didnt garb up something by letting something in that the airfilter is supposed to keep out, just my guess

[Mike McKown]

Look down the carb throat while you pump the throttle and see if the carb is pumping gas.

Crank the engine with the coil wire held next to a ground and see if you have spark.

Don't just start replacing parts.

[WmWatt]

I clean the air filtre with the household vaccum cleaner.

[1990festiva]

This may sound like a dumb question, but did you try putting gas in the tank? mine was doing this and it turned out that the gas guage was bad and read a half tank when it was empty and it was sucking fumes.

[1988redfordfestiva]

u could be right the sending unit do this when going bad sometimes i replaced mine cause it was jumping all over the place

[jacksonjohn]

My experience

My 93 efi was doing the same thing after I had brought it in for an oil change. (It was running beautifully before I took it in). Turns out that while technician was doing all the stuff they do at jiffy lube must have bumped the plastic air hose(the big one up front) that feeds into the air filter and then the efi manifold. apparently it cracked just enough for the air flow meter to misread how much o2 was being pulled in and computer would shut the thing down-this was after i spent 300.00 for a tune up and mechanic was still scratching his head as to why it was still bucking and cutting out. Sure enough he found a tiny split in air hose and taped it with duct tape and it ran beautifull again! wish i had saved myself a 300 tuneup but did learn something new about my beloved festiva.