After driving around my Trans Am yesterday, I noticed it was starting to run like hell. When I got home, I saw that the rear belt for the power-steering pump had slipped off and gotten caught in the main pulley.

I pulled it out, got it mounted on the main pulley, got it half-way on the power-steering pump gear, and started the engine to pull it the rest off the way on.

But even after that the engine still run rough, and I can't figure out why. I rebuilt my carb a few days ago, but it had been running good after that.

Can anybody help me out?

 

Check your timing. Maybe it got thrown off a little when the belt caught. Just an idea, hope it helps.

 

Losing a belt did not affect the timing. Didn't affect the EGR, either, so leave those things alone.

The belt coming off and the motor running rough are probably not connected to each other. Look over the usual suspects for rough running; plug wires come off the plugs, etc. If everything looks OK, start pulling plugs until you find the defective one.

 

But it ran smooth before the belt came off...

Is it possible that a piece of the belt got stuck and is still causing problems? Either that or it somehow knowck things out of tune or alignment.

 

Maybe the belt coming off was more of a "symptom" of the problem instead of the "cause".

 

The 2 things aren't connected, I would almost bet money (if I was the betting kind). This is a little bit like taking your car in for brake work, then demanding that the brake place fix your power window too. "It worked when I brought it in!!!" Doesn't mean the 2 things are related.

Fix the belt problem. Start looking for causes of running rough. Consider all the usual suspects; plugs, wires, fuel filter, etc. etc. Put the idea of a connection between the 2 out of your mind.

 

I just pulled all the plugs, ground them, regapped them, put them back in, and then fixed a vacuum leak. But it still is running like crap. It really seems like the engine is struggling to keep going...

Any advice would be gladly appreciated, because I can't afford to take it into the shop.

 

A piece of your belt is missing and you put it back on? Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly?

 

The belt seems to be fine...

I tuned the carburetor a little, and it's starting to run better, but it is still rough accelerating. The exhaust is sounding like crap, but I'm not sure if that is cause or effect.

When I recently rebuilt my carb, I noticed that the linkage on each side did not seem complete. There is nothing that I can see attached to the secondaries, and there is no choke to be found. On the throttle linkage side, everything seems like it isn't working/assembled correctly.

Does anybody know where I can find replacement linkage kits?

 

Ground the plugs? I've heard of blasting, wire brushing, and solvent washing, but grinding?

Unless you tested the plugs, you still can't be sure about them. After all the work of removing them, I usually don't even bother cleaning them any more, and just install new ones. It's the cheapest tune-up you can do. And after all the fanc chrome-plated, capacitive discharge, multi-spark, soft-touch revving, high-current, inverse polarity, sprial wound, gold/iridium plated, magnetic suppression, glass-filled resin, high-dollar parts, it still all comes down to having reliable spark plugs. All the energy in the world won't create a spark across a plug with a contaminated or cracked insulator.