My car seems to run very wierd now after a new set of wires and distributor, it experienced some of these symptoms before but now it occurs very frequently. When I put the car in reverse, it begins to stutter and the rpms drop very low below 500, it begins to choke and eventually the engine shuts off unless I give it more gas. Also when I'm driving and I apply the brakes to come to a complete stop it randomly will shut off as well ( this does not happen alot but I can see the car stutter a bit sometimes when i come to a stop). Also randomly off of idle sometimes the car does stutter for a brief second until the rpms get near 1000 and then flows smoothly through the rpm range. Any ideas on how to fix the problem? Raising the idle speed comes to my mind but could it be anything else? What are symptoms of a lean condition? Thanks for any help.



85tpi
headers, cold air, catback

 

have u replaced ur coil, not an expert but first thing i thought of

 

It could be a bad wire too. It does happen u know did u replace the cap and rotors or the whole distributor? or mabey a loose wire. sometimes it can feel like it is on properly but not all the way so it doesnt miss but runs messed up .

 

I just fixed the same problem you are describing last night. First I would change your plugs and or wires if your plugs are new. Then if it still is doing the same thing, raise the idle speed. It should idle at around 1000rpm when in neutral and 650-750 in gear.

 

Well I fiddled with the idle control and tried to clean the IAC and its idling great now doesn't stall in reverse or at stops. It idles in park/neutral around 750-850 and in drive around 650. Ever since I installed the 8.8 accel wires the car seems to rev alot easier and smoother. BUT....

I still have a slight stumble on initial startup and a stumble on initial acceleration(very infrequently now, approximately 1 in 10 stop and go's). Also and when i turn the air condition on it will still shake and shut off DOH. As long as I don't have the air on it's fine, it seems teh extra strain on the belt with the air on causes the rpms to go a little crazy. Will vacuum leaks cause something like this? I wish I could find what exactly is wrong

 

well...did you remove and replace the plugs and wires one at a time??

or did you just take them all off and replace them all at the same time?

what i'm driving at is it's a common mistake to put the wrong wires on the wrong plugs...

 

oh no i definitely changed them one at a time, I was too scared I would screw them up, it was my first time changing them myself so I was extra careful (I'm a newbie do it yourselfer).

But mistakes can happen, I should double check it

 

if you have the coil in cap HEI:

take the coil out and see if you put the little contactor back right. Make sure the ground tab is touching the coil core.

It may be a bad coil or a failing ignition modual, did you put the cap on right is it seated in the little tab that locates it?