So I went out to the car and the battery was dead. I hooked up the jump box and didn't even try to start. Got out to cables and something was visibly on fire under the intake manifold near the rear bell housing.
Shut off the jump box and pulled the cable. I was able to blow out the visible flames. But I am at a complete loss. I've never had a car catch on fire, and the only wiring I could see In the area was the o2 sensor harness. Fuseable links don't appear to be melted. I am not going to have a chance to mess with it until next weekend. Gotta be in bed by 8 and up by 4:30 in the morning for work
Well I've pretty much verified fuel is good as well as the computer and I have already traded out the tfi/pip. I have had a bad coil once. It was arching out to the fender. Honestly the car still ran good while it was doing that. Just happened to see it when I was topping off washer fluid late at night.
I'm down to wiring or fiddly things. Working 6 days a week, 10 hrs a day 3 hours from home is catching up to me.
I pulled the spare out of my engine (been sitting since probably 2007 and dropped it in. Car feels a bit lazy, might have gotten the timing a bit off, but it hasn't stumbled once since.
So I changed out all the spark plugs. One or two were pretty used up and way out of gap but non seemed to be super bad.
After that the car seemed to run much better so I left it alone. Of course it started the random sputtering again. This time I put the fuel pressure on the window. Couldn't get it to dip or do anything funny.
Ran codes again, smog pump (82) which is bypassed. And get came back (34) so I am gonna mess with that next weekend. Ran another engine cylider ballance test and it passed, no more o2 code.
Since its still been stumbling, I pulled the dizzy/tfi out of another car. Cap looked pretty good and so did the rotor button. Cars running pretty good, gonna try to drive it again tomorrow but I couldn't get it to do anything bad.
I'm not convinced its the tfi/or pip, but it should rule that out if I have any more problems.
All that sensor does is keep the heater from turning on before the car is warm. If you clip it then you can use the regular mustang style hoses and then the heater still functions perfectly normal, except the heater runs in winter when you turn on the defroster while you scrape the windows. I consider that alone a worthy upgrade.
Well, I habe an update. I dont think its the tfi or the o2 sensor.
While driving today a spark plug blew out. It wasn't loose, the center electrode was spinning and moving in and out of the outside body of the spark plug. This is the same side I had the o2 code on, so I think its all just bad plugs.
I didnt have any tools, but coasted into autozone, bought a $1.99 autolite and it is running much better. Autozone loaned me a socket and had it done in 30 second. Guess I'm gonna do the rest this weekend.
Driving normally at highway speeds, this past week I have picked up a strong stumble. So much so, it feels like the fuel pump or ignition is shut off.
Being as I picked up a cheap fuel pump from Craigslist, I assumed that was the cause. Hooked up the gauge and I have a perfect steady 42 psi with vac line off and about 34 with it on. Preassure rises with throttle, so everything seems to check out.
I run codes, I get a 91 (lean drivers side) 34 (get out of range) and a air injection code.
I pulled the egr off since its really easy to get to, and its stuck and has a ton of black gunk. Cleaned it up, and minimal preassure moves it in and out. Looked at the smog pump, and I have a missing hose clamp. Whoops, wonder how long its been like that. Hooked that back up.
Unfortunately, engine was too hot to do the o2 sensor, so I let it be for now.
After messing with the egr and smog pump, I ran codes again. They still show up, havent cleared them yet. I then ran an engine cylinder ballance test. The motor isnt running smooth, but I had just ran codes and figured why not.
Got a 90 the first time and a number 5 the second.
Now obviously the o2 is going to affect the car running well and that is in the works for tomorrow. Ive noticed a drop in gas mileage too, so if thats all it is it would make me pretty happy.
So the plan right now is to swap that o2 and see where I am at tomorrow. Ill probably pull the number 5 plug while I am there and make sure it looks okay, but the plugs aren't that old.
The real question here, I've lucked out pretty good on o2 sensors. The only time ive really had to replace them was for emissions. I never really noticed a big difference in how the car ran. Can a bad o2 cause my bad stumble?
Bad spark plug wires cause interference on am radio.
I had an 88xr7. Tach never worked. It ran okay but needed a tune up and had a bad head gasket. When I removed the coil wire while I was doing some in related work, I put it back on and tach started working intermittently. When the tach died, it would start to stumble and miss. I figured it was caused by the bad head gasket.
Threw new spark plugs and wires at it after the headgasket repair and it worked fine.
I've swapped them, they were all used junkyard stuff so who knows if they were original or not. But I pulled a full 83 console with the lights in the side then used my 87 console bits because they were nicer.
My 86 tbird has 220k miles on it now, 100k since I bought it 3 years ago. I drive the crap out of it, pizza delivery and a ton of highway. Last winter I hit a bad patch of ice/snow and spun out. Straightened it out right before hitting the guard rail. Luckily it pretty much only rubbed on the tire but it bent the tie rod. I adjusted it out a bit just to get by without killong tires. Before that, the alignment was perfect.
But with all these miles on it, I lost a ball joint on a dirt road a while ago, and really haven't trusted everything else on the car since. I want to pretty much replace everything on there, including struts up front.
I would like to get as much adjustment as possible to fix a bit of caster/camber incase I bent something when I hit that guard rail.
As much as I would like caster/camber plates, I do not plan on lowering the car, just a basic stock rebuild. I was thinking about getting "crash bolts" to make sure everything is as good as I can get it, but I have no experience with them.
Every alignment ive gotten, the steering wheel ends up crooked or even upside down and they refuse to adjust everything as long as it is "in spec". I am going to try to do a drive way alignment after I replace everything to get everything as close as I can before I end up taking it somewhere to make sure its all as straight as I can get it first.
I plan on spending good money on balljoint. That one was pretty scarey. I'm glad I was under 10 mph on a dirt road when that one let go.
Pla warps pretty bad in a car interior in the summer.
The thicker you make the part the stronger, obviously. We've been making parts out of Pla dor model airplanes for a few years and they warp bad. Particullarly the wing mounts we've designed to be held on with rubber bands. Without the rubber bands they hold up okay if its not in sunlight.
Abs is slightly lighter bit not quite as rigid for the same part. Adhesion between layers is hard to get right though.
I used to use 1156 bulbs to discharge model airplane batteries. They pulled 12 watts (1 amp) each.
I dont think that a voltage drop would be very accurate, but I can't say I've researched it much. Also when measuring voltage on two different cars tail lights (my 86 cougar and 87 tbird) they were 9v at idle with the headlights on. There is pretty significant voltage drop.
