Bucking, surging, power loss in 89 manual carbed festy

[Dayton area moped riders]

I have went over all the repair threads that seem like they pertain to this. I was wondering what order to trouble shoot and check off before I spend money on plugs, wires , distributor etc. The car was running great, then it started running like crap, so much so it is embarrassing to drive. I really like the car and would like to keep it on the road as long as possible. It has all the vacuum lines hooked up and in good shape. I believe the problem lies somewhere with fuel delivery beings that it runs best when the car is first started with the choke on. The car seems to idle fine, but when you go to take off it wants to kill out, cough, then take off, grab second and it is bucking and coughing with a surge in power that comes and goes. I wanted to keep all the original equipment under the hood but after this fiasco I think it may be time to simplify and get rid of some emissions crap. I don't want the car to be rendered useless over such trivial b.s. as emissions and not looking to drop 400$ in parts to have this happen again next year. Thanks for any info or help that can be used in my situation.

[WmWatt]

In my experience with my car bucking is an ignition issue, ie missfires. I'd clean and check the gap on the spark plugs, wipe down the ignition wires, clean the cap and rotor, and check all the connections. I found corrosion in the centre of a relatively new coil. You can also look up how to check for spark. Some people can tell if it's a strong spark or no. I can't. With a volt/ohm meter you can check the resistance in the igntion wires and coil. One thing you can't check is the ignition control module but that usually just makes the engine cut out when it's going.

How much do you know about the car? Milage? Compression? When parts were last replaced? Last time I had problems it was the coil which had never been replaced. 27 years was probably good value for the original. Also how old is the timing belt? Good luck.

[Dayton area moped riders]

I don't know much about the car, I have recently replaced the fuel pump and filter. The plugs had been pulled, gapped,cleaned up the week prior to these symptoms..had a new air filter.. I plugged the hose going to between the egr and relay but no change. I have had the air cleaner off and pinched the fuel line off with it running to clean the needle seat.sprayed cleaner and sea foam in the carb.that didn't change anything. I had pulled the plugs again, they were on the lighter side but seemed to look good. The lowest compression is 164 with the highest 184. The car has about 177,000 miles on it. I have replaced the c.v. Shafts, control arms, struts, bearings at all four corners, rebuilt the breaks, New battery.it appears to have a new distributor cap on it but I didn't put that on there.I have had this car for about a year or two, but have only gotten around to working on it and driving it for a few weeks. Everything is new to me, I don't know much about under the hood, and don't have the equipment and tools it takes to diagnose it properly.it's raining here now so I figured I would fish around for some moral support and what not.

[bravekozak]

Ditch the feedback carb along with the computer.
Search "Escort carb" with double quotes.
Rocketman makes adapters.

[WmWatt]

White powder on the plus is ash from fuel additives and is normal. I'd check the ignition wires are on tight and no corrosion at the ends.

The EGR just cools the combustion to reduce NOx emissions. It should not cause your problem It's easy to take off and clean, and any problem will light up the check engine light.

If you suspect fuel you could take a look at the fuel filtre to see if it's dirty and clogged. Also the rubber hose under the filtre can collapse and resirict fuel when it gets old. A piece of new hose is a cheap replacement. The carbretted cars suck fuel from the tank so there is always a vacuum, unlike the fuel injected models which have an electric pump in the tank so have pressure in the fuel line.

[bravekozak]

Vent your fuel cap after you change your carb.
I found a sexy red one at the junkyard.