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Saturday Morning - April 13th, 2013 Oklahoma
[1990 Festiva with a 1995 Aspire block]
Stumbling and Bucking problem solved!
Cause: Torn Volume Air Flow Meter Duct
Details:
My Festiva was bucking real hard at slow speeds but when I'd give it the gas and accelerate up to speed it would feel like it was running fine. Since I had just swapped out my 1990 Festiva engine with a 1995 Aspire block I thought it may be the timing but that wasn't the case.
I was going to time it with a timing light because that was one of the few things I hadn't done since my swap. Well, I plugged in the light and shined it down into the area where your supposed to see the mark on the crank shaft pulley and the stationary indicator but it's so crowded down in there that it was very hard for me to see what I was looking for. I thought I would remove the Volume Air Flow meter but still try to keep it hooked up, maybe then I could get a good look. As I was removing the meter, I was bending the meter duct out of the way when it became real loose. It had torn right under where the accordion section of the hard rubber duct meets the hard plastic duct that comes from the intake manifold. My suspicion was that it was already torn there and that's why it was so easy to tear further.
I removed the duct and wound 'duct' tape around it. (Hey, that may be the first time in my life I actually used duct-tape for a duct!)
When I decided that removing the meter really didn't help because it was just to difficult to move out of the way but yet still be hooked-up, I put it all back together again and and decided not to worry about the timing. Now that my mind was on 'AIR' and that maybe the motor was sucking in too much air because the duct may have been torn prior to the major tear that I did, I thought I would clean my air-filter better than just smacking the dirt out of it. That was a mistake that I made when I first did my engine swap, I should have just gone out and bought a new air-filter instead of trying to save and clean the old one. Anyway, I used my air compressor and blew out the dirt in the air-filter the best I could.
I put everything back together, started it up, took it for a test drive and it works great! No more bucking and stumbling - motor sounds and feels great. The only thing now is that the engine light pops on after 5 or 10 miles and then it'll go off for awhile.
One last note, I have heard that the Festiva's computer automatically times the motor and that it doesn't matter where you turn the distributor. That must be true because I have had the distributor turned to a few different spots and the motor always seems to run the same. In the end, I simply saw a 'bolt-shadow' of where the distributor was positioned in the first place and tightened it there.
Anyway, car runs great now!
[1990 Festiva with a 1995 Aspire block]
Stumbling and Bucking problem solved!
Cause: Torn Volume Air Flow Meter Duct
Details:
My Festiva was bucking real hard at slow speeds but when I'd give it the gas and accelerate up to speed it would feel like it was running fine. Since I had just swapped out my 1990 Festiva engine with a 1995 Aspire block I thought it may be the timing but that wasn't the case.
I was going to time it with a timing light because that was one of the few things I hadn't done since my swap. Well, I plugged in the light and shined it down into the area where your supposed to see the mark on the crank shaft pulley and the stationary indicator but it's so crowded down in there that it was very hard for me to see what I was looking for. I thought I would remove the Volume Air Flow meter but still try to keep it hooked up, maybe then I could get a good look. As I was removing the meter, I was bending the meter duct out of the way when it became real loose. It had torn right under where the accordion section of the hard rubber duct meets the hard plastic duct that comes from the intake manifold. My suspicion was that it was already torn there and that's why it was so easy to tear further.
I removed the duct and wound 'duct' tape around it. (Hey, that may be the first time in my life I actually used duct-tape for a duct!)
When I decided that removing the meter really didn't help because it was just to difficult to move out of the way but yet still be hooked-up, I put it all back together again and and decided not to worry about the timing. Now that my mind was on 'AIR' and that maybe the motor was sucking in too much air because the duct may have been torn prior to the major tear that I did, I thought I would clean my air-filter better than just smacking the dirt out of it. That was a mistake that I made when I first did my engine swap, I should have just gone out and bought a new air-filter instead of trying to save and clean the old one. Anyway, I used my air compressor and blew out the dirt in the air-filter the best I could.
I put everything back together, started it up, took it for a test drive and it works great! No more bucking and stumbling - motor sounds and feels great. The only thing now is that the engine light pops on after 5 or 10 miles and then it'll go off for awhile.
One last note, I have heard that the Festiva's computer automatically times the motor and that it doesn't matter where you turn the distributor. That must be true because I have had the distributor turned to a few different spots and the motor always seems to run the same. In the end, I simply saw a 'bolt-shadow' of where the distributor was positioned in the first place and tightened it there.
Anyway, car runs great now!