My "88 Festy stranded me and my 11 year old......

[rpickle]

Crappy ending to a fun night. Took my son to his his first Blue Jackets game. Great game, went into O/T, then a shootout. We lost, but was still a good time. On our way home, I thought I hit something or I lost a fan belt. Nearly immediately, the car began to loose power. Luckily occurred at an exit, albeit not the best exit it town, still off of the freeway. Rolled to a stop and it died. Cranked it over and it started, let the clutch out and had to continually pump the gas to get it to stay running. Got going enough to pull into a parking lot. Sat there a few seconds. Popped the hood and checked the fan belt. Still there and tight. Saw nothing unusual. Closed the hood and started the car. It idled OK for a minute or two. Decided to give it another try. Had power leaving the parking, but a 100 feet down the road it died again. This time it wouldn't restart. Rolled backwards to the parking lot I'd just came from. Called my sweetheart then AAA. They towed us home. Went out this afternoon and tried to start it. Cranked but not even a putt. Will look closer tomorrow. Acts like it ran out of gas, but my gage still was indicating between 1/4 and 1/2. I may have an issue with the tank screen again. I did pop the top off of the aircleaner and there wasn't a heavy gas smell as I would have expected after cranking it for a minute. Anyone had something like this happen?

Appreciate any feedback. I still have the trip to St. Louis planned next month. May have to take my wifes car!?

Rick

[rotinaj13]

Check the fuel filters, was it raining out? could have been wet wires or cap if it was. Can you hear any vacuum leaks? you can try starting it and removing the air cleaner and dumping a little seafoam in the carb while revving it up, to clean the carb some what. will it run correctly after it sits (cools down). when it does start can you rev it when it's out of gear? does it stumble? Yes I have had that a lot of times I have owned 2 88's. I just need some more info to help you. check the spark plugs what do they look like?

[rpickle]

Well, appreciate the quick reply. I sometimes forget that not everyone knows the saga of my Festy! My bad... Anyway, last summer I bought this car from a guy that hadn't had it registered since 2000. It was in field for most of that time. I got it with carb pulled. I put a rebuild kit on the carb, then installed. Could only get the car to run by pouring gas down the throat. I replaced the plugs, wires, air filter, oil/oil filter, battery fuel filter (twice) and fuel pump. After replacing the fuel pump, it would run on its own for a few hundred yards, then die. It would restart after cranking on it. I finally found the screen filter in the tank was plugged along with the 12 inches of steel tubing it was attached to. Wow, great. I was on the road. Have been since early Dec. Starts and idles great even when it was below zero. Has always had a good bit of hesitation, but reading in here that is common. I have not pulled my EGR valve off and cleaned it. Want to do that soon. Whew, if anyone is still with me here, that is the last 7-8 months in a nutshell. The carb looks very clean still. I will have a better look at it today. Check the plugs for wetness. I will check the tank filter/screen. Will also look at the fusable links, although I am not sure what they disable on a carbed car. they would most likely kill something completely, not half-assed at first....

Thanks

Rick

[rpickle]

Started up just like normal this afternoon..... I'm puzzled. Going to pull the EGR and then look at the tank filter/screen. Will post back later tonight.

Rick

[Bowls]

Yeah this ones got me.. Is your idle missing at all? if it is it will be making a put put noise, because a cylinder is not firing. try picking up some BARDHOL valve cleaning solution from crappy tire, 15$ (goes in your fuel) valves might be a little sticky.
as rotina said, does your car rev at all? trying putting down the accelerator slowly, getting the revs up slowly, if you can get them high without it stalling, let off. Then try just giving it 1 good pump to the floor.
We're going for trial and error here, the more information you can provide us, the more likely we are to be able to help you.

[rotinaj13]

If it can rev all right put her in gear and slowly creep the rpms up to the high side, than stop. Restart again in first and try snapping the tach up to the higher side quickly and post the results of that. But only needed if it passes the rev test fine. Some times they will act fine with no load than act all buggered up with load.

[yogaslackers]

I am having a simalar problam, please check the post from yogaslackers, for more info. Keep me posted I have tried everything still no power under load. Good luck.

Sam

[25Horseplay]

I would change your fuel filter. Its possible that it was packed with dirt and after it sat it falls off the filter allowing the car to run until it sucks it all up in the filter again and stalls the car!

[rpickle]

Hi. Thanks guys. It ran this afternoon like nothing was wrong with it. I did not drive around (didn't want to push it back home!). I was able to rev engine and I put it in gear and slipped the clutch. Seemed normal. I took the EGR off. The valve barely moved. Cleaned up nicely. However, one of the studs twisted off, so have that to fix. I replaced the fuel filter when I first got the car, then again in January. I did not get to the tank screen today. I'm hoping that it is plugged.

Appreciate your help.

Rick

[quaddawg]

Tank screen, Fuel pump again, fuel filter, or a plugged line, or combination of both.

All common on cars that sit. When you pull the inspection/fuelpump door off, is the bottom of the tank clean looking?

[slomoe]

I would pull the fuel feed line off the carb and see how much flow there is. I would let it pump into a clear container and look at the fuel. And like someone else said, look in the tank. Cleaning or replacing the screen won't help for long if the tank has rust and crud in it. Good luck. Mike

[yogaslackers]

Replacing the cap and rotor worked wonders for me!!! only $30 at O'Reilly's. Give that a try.

[rpickle]

Thanks for the pointers. Here is what I did today: I removed the broken stud for the EGR valve, installed freshly cleaned egr valve. Open gas tank hatch and pulled out the fuel pickup/float assy. Overall clean except for a few very tiny rust spots. Sprayed clean with carb cleaner. Reinstalled. Started car and took it around the block. Ran normally. It was a rolling salt cake, so drove to the local car wah and sprayed her down. Idled the whole time. Drove home. Stil fine. Drove into work tonight and still ran fine. Could be electrical, I guess. The weather the night it died was extremely damp. Bugs me when I suspect stuff that has all ready been replaced. Can I spray the inside of the cap with Silicon?

Head scratcher....

Thanks

Rick

[rpickle]

Drove home from OK. Only thing that happened was the Check engine light flicked on for about 30 seconds. No noticable degradation. It was raining too.

Don't care for the Dr. Jekel and Mr Hyde Festy!!! Wish it would just die, so I could fix it.....

Rick