Re: Engine Troubles.

[jtrealty@xxxx]

Vacuum leaks are bad. They can cause loss of power, affect idle and 
ride quality, allow air to get into the engine unfiltered causing 
increased wear, cause vacuum operated devices to not work and so on. 
There is no short cut to fixing them. The only sure way, if the hoses 
are hard and brittle, is to replace them one by one. I have seen 
splits and cracks that would not be found any other way than to remove 
the hose and inspect it inch by inch bending it as you go. If your 
mode switch is hissing then you know what you have to do. As for the 
acceleration problem, I have cured them sometimes by replacing a bad 
ignition coil. It can be that you have a high voltage breakdown of the 
secondary ignition system under high loads. The things to look for are 
bad or misgapped plugs, bad wires and boots, carbon-tracked cap or 
rotor, and possibly a bad coil. Ignition coils rarely fail but it does 
happen especially after 20+ years. Depending on how many miles and if 
it backfires under heavy acceleration you could also need a valve 
adjustment. The "new" ecu may be forcing the coil to run a little 
hotter but if it is bad it still breaks down. Substitute another coil 
temporaraly and see if it fixes it. 
David Teitelbaum
vin 10757



--- In dmcnews@xxxx, DMCVegas@xxxx wrote:
> Ok, I just got my new Control Pressure Regulator installed. 
> Accelleration has improved. But it still as good as it's supposed to 
> be. The car still jerks a little durring accelleration. This will 
now 
> appear durring both light and hard accelleration. Low speed crusing 
> (10-20mph) has greatly improved. No more hard bucks or jerks. But 
> when I hit a hill, the engine sputters a bit.
> 
> Since the installation of the new CPR, my car is back to almost 
dying 
> when dropping RPMs rapidly. The best way to describe the performance 
> now would be 'groggy'. She's trying to wake up, but isn't quite up 
to 
> par yet. When I started the engine with the new CPR, it did cough a 
> bit.
> 
> Now, here's the kicker. I recently picked up a used Ignition ECU off 
> eBay. I swapped ECU's, and while it may just be my imagination, the 
> accelleration did improve a bit more. What I did notice for sure was 
> that the engine stopped "gagging" when the RPMs rapidly dropped, and 
> the battery light stopped flashing.
> 
> Now, the only parts of my ignition system that have not yet been 
> replaced are the Ignition Coil, Ballast Resistors, and the coil 
> inside of the distributor. My LAMBDA probe is also original. The 
> clock just hit 30K a while back, and the lamp is on. Even so, my 
> mixture has been so out of whack that I'm sure even a new probe 
would 
> have been wasted. So that too will be replaced next paycheck.
> 
> What is old though are my vaccum lines. The rubber is hard, and 
> just 'snaps' onto the connectors. My my mode switch 'hisses'. So I'm 
> a bit concerned about vaccum leaks. Another thing is when I slam the 
> gas pedal, the accelleration is ok. But if I push it down all the 
way 
> to trip the microswitch, the acelleration becomes instant. So this 
is 
> another thing that I'm curious about. All signs seem to point to a 
> vaccum leak somewhere.
> 
> If someone has some quick pointers on how to inspect/replace the 
> lines, let me know. Will I be able to reach the water valve with my 
> hands? I can change the distributor cap w/o removing anything, but I 
> not sure If I can reach these lines. If it helps, I have a manual 
> transmission.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -Robert
> vin 6585