This is for my girlfriend's 86 Trans am, it's an LG4 with a 700-r4 all stock. Started acting up this morning, give it the slightest bit of gas and the RPMs drop, and it goes no where for about a second. Then it starts to move. We have huge hill in our driveway and it would not make it up the hill this morning. She finally got up the hill after struggling for quite a while, but the car still ran like crap and she came home and I drove her to work in my car so I could figure out what's going on with hers. I'm about to go out and do some investigating, but I wanted to throw this post up and see if anyone had any prior experiences with the CC Carb doing this. The car has all new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor by the way.

 

Some questions:

Did the problem show up right after the new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor? Have you verified everything is back on like it should be? Perhaps a wire fell off or loosened up since the job. Vacuum lines intact?

Was the timing set/verified/adjusted?

Any SES light during all this?

Any fuel smell?

Have you verified the accelerator pump is squirting like it should?

 

No the problem did not occur after the new ignition parts. Thsoe were installed about 5months ago. But I have found a problem. Has anyone ever heard of an alternator failing causing undo load on the engine and snuffing it out at higher RPM. The engine snuffs out anything over 1000RPM and the alternator is making some bad noises. I can hear the bearings just eating themselves. We just installed a new battery yesterday and I'm thinking maybe that wasn't the exact problem. I have verifired that all vacuum lines are plugged in, no fuel smell, no codes, and i can't find my timing light (in the middle of moving) so I can't verify timing at the moment, but I have not played with it at all so I see no reason for it to be different and the distributor has not moved. Also I believe the accel pump is squirting as it should be. Any thoughts?

 

Alternator can cause problems two ways:

1) Inadequate voltage to engage the choke relay, so the choke never opens up completely (the choke light should have come on, if it is working).

2) Inadequate voltage to properly operate the ignition & computer.

 

I think the two things 57 just mentioned shouldn't really affect the car's running to the point you mentioned ('specially with a charged battery)....
Sounds like your alt is trying to seize or something?
Easy check: remove the belt, try driving around (briefly), if your battery is charged, you'll throw some codes and get some lights, but it should run ok, and make it up hills... Then you can rebuild the alt/replace as needed.... If the car still runs awful without a belt on the alt, then we can move on....

EDIT: oh yea, is your alt belt WAY to tight perhaps?

 

I replaced the alternator. The belt was not too tight, it was just about right. Still runs the same with the new alternator, I knew that wasn't the problem, but I was just hoping it would be something easy. The carb has been rebuilt several years ago. The car hasn't had many miles put on it since that rebuild, but I'm suspect as to whether or not something is wrong with the carb again.

Any steady amount of gas and the will snuff out. I'm thinking it's getting too much fuel.

 

If it's rich enough to cause it to run like that, then it should be pouring black smoke out of the exhaust.

Any popping sounds out of the carb?

Wouldn't hurt to check the ignition. Control module and/or coil will cause this type of problem. They are known to go bad.

Since the car hasn't had much use, the carb could be gunked up. Mine sat for a year before I got it, it ran okay in the 6 years since, but I finally went through the carb last month. The pump check ball was corroded and the fuel bowl had water corrosion deposits. I replaced the float, but didn't verify whether or not it was saturated. Even though it went back on a different engine, I know it is operating much better now.

 

No popping sounds out of the carb and no black smoke.

Is there a link to a trouble tree for the ignition? I don't have a service manual for the car.

The car didn't see much use for about 1 1/2 years until we bought it and she's been driving it since December. It gets driven quite a bit.

 

Personally, I replaced the coil & module before they gave me any trouble.

I don't recall how detailed the Haynes ignition troubleshooting chart is.

 

I have a spare coil sitting in my box, I suppose I can toss that in tomorrow and see what happens from there. Anyone else have any other input?