So I've been trying to diagnose my hard start and hesitation issue, well today I worked on the TPS sensor and IAC, first I set the TPS at .54 volts and went for a ride, well I forgot to fully latch the hood and well you guessed it, hood flew up about 50 mph, hood is trashed, dent in top of fender and car still runs like crap! Changed out the IAC after I got back, reset the minimum idle per instructions, car ran way better without the IAC connected. I threw in the towel for the day, I've been reading up on this everywhere don't understand it, one minute it'll launch and pull strong, next minute it just bogs and bucks and sputters.

 

Damn that sucks about the damage, have you checked out your MAF at all? Mine would run great cold but after it was up to operating temp and you shut it down and restarted the car ran rich and did not run as well...turned out the original Bosch would get heat soaked and give it trouble. Took a lot of testing to figure it out but a new Delphi MAF straightened it out. Another idea is how is the fuel pump pressure or fuel filter? Almost sounds like its not getting enough fuel? Only other idea I have is its ignition or spark related?

 

I just got the factory service manual, managed to get my Bosch 1300 scanner to work with it, so I'll be going through everything step by step, I cleaned the MAF this morning as well, planning on fuel filter, have a fuel pressure gauge on the way. If you put your foot in it fast it'll stumble most of the time, every once in a while no hesitation, if you get into gradually it seems to pull pretty decent, but it still doesn't feel quite right. I'll be digging out the old timing light and checking base timing as well. I had a slight very small dent in the hood so I guess that'll be fixed now lol.

 

Yep, that's a crappy day. Sorry about the mishap.

 

Thanks, it definitely was a crappy day. I did soldier on though, I pounded the hood down with a rubber mallet so it would close and kept at it for a while, I eventually went back down to the garage and pulled the IAC and cleaned the passage, it was really grungy, took it for a test drive and it seemed a good bit better at first, then it started acting up again. I’ll eventually get it figured out, I don’t quit very easily, and my stepdad and I work very good together so between him and I it’ll get figured out. I do have classic car insurance on it so the body should get squared away as well. It could have been worse I guess, but it made me sick when it happened. It’ll live to drive another day.