Broke down, yet again

[JohnGunn]

Well, the issue is becoming intermittent now...it runs awesome one day and bucks your brains out the next. So now i'm thinking this might be electrical. What do i start with and what do i look for? Electrical issues are my weakest area.

Lots of examples of carbureted Festivas with intermittent problems that were solved by replacing the distributor, which contains the igniter.

In addition, its been my general observation that driveability issues are most of the time the result of ignition failures. As a rule I would recommend new spark plugs, but bad plugs don't normally become good for extended periods.

See if you can't find a used distributor to swap in to see if that corrects the problem.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[Evil D]

I think i've only put about 4k on this car and i did a full tune up shortly after getting it. I'll definitely look into the distributor swap...though i have no clue where to look since there's no other Festiva owners local to me so i may have to put something out in the wanted section. I just hate spending money on things and not fixing the problem..

[crazyrog17]

In another thread, the original poster reported problems such as yours. The final answer was a half kinked fuel line that, when started and under throttle, fully kinked.

It might kink itself when driving because the bucking will bend the soft line between the engine and the body. Just something to think about.

[Evil D]

Hmm...that sounds kinda crazy but i'm open to any suggestion that doesn't require throwing parts and money at it. Any idea what section the line was at? I've looked at the line from the firewall to the carb and that's all fine and unkinked. Everything else should be metal to the tank shouldn't it?

[Evil D]

So i got to tinkering again today, found a few things.

1) the curb idle is backed all the way out so that it's not even pushing the throttle linkage. This tells me there HAS to be a vacuum leak somewhere. Who agrees? Otherwise why else would the idle be sound about normal with the screw backed all the way out?

2) if all the vacuum hoses are ok looking, what are the chances one of the carb gaskets or the intake gasket could be leaking?


I checked the fuel lines, none are kinked. I know on some Holleys, there's a filter up inside the fuel line fitting....does this carb have anything like that? I couldn't tell from the outside but i thought maybe there's something like that under the top of the carb inside?

Today its running awesome...last night it wouldn't run for crap. It doesn't change when it warms up..it runs normal when hot with the fan kicking on and off. I haven't noticed anything that seems to be a cause of this...it has done it with an almost empty tank and it's doing it now with a full tank.

[JohnGunn]

I think i've only put about 4k on this car and i did a full tune up shortly after getting it. I'll definitely look into the distributor swap...though i have no clue where to look since there's no other Festiva owners local to me so i may have to put something out in the wanted section. I just hate spending money on things and not fixing the problem..

I know what you mean about spending money and having it not fix the problem.

Here are some suggestions that may help you trace the problem to the distributor/igniter, or not.

1. Often times the past reports of this failure suggested behavior that could be heat related, e.g., the car refused to start, but after leaving it overnight it would start immediately. This resembles closely the failure pattern of an electronic part such as the igniter. Also, when an electronic part is teetering on the brink of failure it's behavior can vary greatly, e.g., from working perfectly to not working at all and all points between. Most other, i.e., mechanical failures, are much more consistent. I would try spraying some cooling fluid, e.g., Brake Kleen, on distributor and even open the distributor and spray the igniter directly, when the engine is acting up. (I should confess I've never seen the inside of a carbureted distributor.) Just be sure to allow it to dry before putting it back together to test it.

2. Another approach would be to thoroughly test all other aspects of the ignition system. Check and clean all electrical and vacuum connections, test the coil, measure the resistance of the wires, clean and examine the cap and rotor, and replace the spark plugs. If all of them check out, you might feel better about investing in another distributor. Also, while it is running poorly, I would connect my timing light to all spark plug wires plus the coil secondary wire and look at the light to see if I could detect any missing beats.

3. Finally, I would analyze the behavior of the engine with the thought of connecting it to the heat level of the engine, or, even better, the heat level of the distributor itself, easily tested by touch.

With cars as old as yours, you will never regret having a cache of good, used parts ready to use in diagnosis and repair. It could save you countless hours of worry and time, down the road. This, of course, assumes you believe this car is worth that level of commitment.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[Festiva Time]

With all respect: I would tend to think you O.D'ed your car with SeaFoam. How much SeaFoam did you put in your tank of only 2-3 gallons of gas? Was it 1 or 2 cans? Plus you used more!

More is NOT better! I think you are now finding out why. Wish you the best.

[Festiva Time]

Rechecked: You Put 1 can of SeaFoam in the gas tank with only 2-3 Gallons of gas, 1 can down the carb, and 1 can thru the vacuum lines. 3 cans of SeaFoam when only a 1/2 a can is specified in a FULL Tank of gas.

[Evil D]

Rechecked: You Put 1 can of SeaFoam in the gas tank with only 2-3 Gallons of gas, 1 can down the carb, and 1 can thru the vacuum lines. 3 cans of SeaFoam when only a 1/2 a can is specified in a FULL Tank of gas.

LOL no i never did get that many cans...and this problem had started before the first can was ran through the gas. I ran the concentrated (2-3 gallons or whatever it was) through after the first time it started this whole ordeal, hoping maybe something was clogging the accelerator pump squirter and maybe that would clean it out.

Here's something i noticed today. When it's acting up, it always starts...always, so i don't know about the distributor thing. It starts and runs and gets up to temp and the fan kicks on and off, and i can turn it off and start it right back up and it idles...rough, but idles. Something else i noticed is, it almost seems flooded. There's gas around the top of the carb....is there a chance that driving it too soon when it's a little cool out (like when i'm leaving for work at 9:45 in the evening) could cause the initial bucking....which to me is typical of a carb engine that doesn't have a choke and is cold...and then that initial bucking is causing it to flood out, exaggerating the problem further until it's fully flooded?

Another thing is, even when it's running good, up to temp and everything, if i have the choke opened all the way, it has a very slight hesitation at lower RPM. I picked up a can of starting fluid and i'm gonna spray around and try to find a vacuum leak tomorrow...i'm hoping the carb gasket or something like that is leaking.

[91_festy_Gl]

Have you checked the timing belt? Have you checked to make sure its in time and the marks line up? Carb engines dont take well to bad cam/crank timing.

Not sure what to suggest, but hope you get it figured out.

[Evil D]

Haven't checked timing, because of how awesome it runs when it's not acting up. It's like jekyll and hyde. It has to be either carb related or electrical...unless there's a way timing could become intermittent?

[Evil D]

Is the float adjustable on these carbs? I noticed the sight glass, and the gas does look to be sitting a bit on the low side inside there. I guess this could easily be a sticking float problem but i was hoping the Seafoam would've helped with that a little.

[Festiva Time]

Rereading your previous posts, it suggest too much fuel problem. If you are running with the stock type mechanical fuel pump, then it's not the problem. If you are using an electric fuel pump, then it maybe putting out too high of fuel pressure. Fuel level is adjustable by bending the float arm. You probably need to have the carb rebuild. Better choice: go with a Weber conversion if you can.

[Evil D]

Stock mechanical as far as i can tell. Today i noticed the throttle isn't closing all the way...not by a LOT, but i can press back on the linkage and drop the idle down. The return spring is nice and strong, so i sprayed some PB Blaster on the gas pedal and throttle linkage and that helped a little, then i eventually adjusted the cable sleeve where it mounts and that got the idle to drop down to normal.

I've drove it a few times now, and every time i go through the trouble of closing the choke on my own and letting it warm up, then opening the choke and driving it...and so far so good, it hasn't acted up yet. At this point i'm really leaning towards the flooding idea i had earlier.

[Evil D]

So today, i bought a new PCV valve and put it on and went for a drive. For some reason today it has a surging idle...probably 500hp up and down. So i pulled over i went to pull off the breather, and when i pulled off the little S shaped hose that goes from the valve cover to the breather, it expelled a TON of air like unhooking an air compressor hose. Then i pulled out the PCV and it did the same thing...the crank case isn't breathing. So i blew through that S hose and found it was tightly packed with this:





When i pulled it apart, i could see it's some kind of woven fabric, looks a little bit like a red shop rag. It was packed so tight inside that hose i had to jam it out with a screw driver and needle nose. It's not part of the little filter in the side of the breather either...that's a fiberglass kind of material and it was in good shape aside from being filthy. If i'm not mistaken, the PCV sucks air out and this hose pulls air in...right? So where the hell could this have come from??? I don't even use those rags so it isn't from me and it seems the only way it could've come in was from the breather area. Also all this time, it hasn't blown off air when taking that hose off, so it either wasn't totally packed and plugged yet or this just came from somewhere and plugged that hose. I don't even think it could've gotten in from the breather because the filter was there and there's no room for a piece of rag to get in there.

So anyway i pulled all that crap out of the hose and hooked it all back up and after a few minutes the surging idle went away. So i drove it around town and onto the highway and it *seems* to be running normal again. Who thinks this could've been the problem all along?