I have an 87 z28 with the stock 305 4bbl. I changed most of the ignition components a couple of weeks ago due to a bad ignition module. It's run pretty good since.

Today I'm driving, and suddenlt WHAM, it backfires and generally starts running like it poo. Lack of power mostly, and more occasional backfires, and then some run-on when i turn off the car. The service engine light did not come on though.

I open the hood, and the only thing I can find is that I slung the belt off of the smog pump. The pump doesn't spin as freely as I would expect it to.

Could the smog pump cause this poor running condition? If so, do I have to replace it, or is there some other way to bypass this? And yes, I did a search, but I couldn't seem to find the answer.

Thanks.

 

i dont think the smog pump would cause your car to run bad. it only delivers air to the exhaust maifolds to help burn unburnt fuel. i know a couple of people who have taken it off with no problems........

 

No, the smog pump will not cause that. Just exactly what was going on at the moment this happened?

 

Nothing unusual was happening. Suburb driving at about 45 miles per hour. The car had been running maybe 20 minutes when this happened.

I wouldn't have thought it was the smog pump, but ya never know. Oil pressure, water temp, everything is just fine.

It's acting kinda like it did before the ignition module went out, I just thought it very coincidental that the belt was tossed, and the problems occured. What, besides high mileage, would cause the ignition module to die again, if that is the problem?

It still cranks and runs, with the occasional backfire under acceleration, a bit of power loss, and the run on. Instinctively, I know these are ignition symptoms, but dammit, most of that is new. And it ran like a champ from the second I replaced the stuff until 2 weeks later-today!!

Sorry about the rant there.

 

I had a similar problem not long ago. My belt snapped and somehow it took a spark plug wire along with it. It's probably not whats wrong, but you never know.

 

Cold as heck, in the dark, with his jammies on and his lovely, understanding girlfriend holding the flashlight, he boldly plunges his arm into the cavity. What does our hero have grasped in his hand as he removes it from the belly of the beast? The end of a plug wire, torn from it's comfortable resting place by the ricochet of a sadistic v-belt.

Praise and glory to our hero, and kudos to his brave advisor, Killogy, who guided the hand that may have smote the gremlin in the beast.