Well this absolutley boggles my mind. my friend and I went to put a new set of ignition wires on my 92 RS, and when we were finally finished, we got alot more than we bargained for.

Now, the engine timing seems to be hideously off. When the car is started, it seems to run okay for a second, then it fluxuates between around 100 rpms to damn near 2500 rpms.. I can only assume this is a timing problem. (Bear in mind I have a 3.1 MPFI)

There is also a nasty squealing noise, probably being a belt coming from under the hood.

Last but not leastly, my brakes no longer work. There is too much pressure behind the pedal to push it in.

Okay, the wires were installed correctly. They are seqeunced correctly, and are all installed right. Someone suggested that we may have changed the gaps on our plugs, because the old caps were a PAIN to get off, and required alot of muscle to pull them loose. That may have happened, but it doesnt explain enough to be a sure fire cause.

My question is, could we have 'bumped' something and screwed it up? We had to jack the car up to access the number 1 cylinder with our wrench. What could we have accidentally screwed up to cause all these problems?

Any help is greatly appreciated, seeing as how im stuck without a car thanks to what shouldve been a simple repair. (at least I get to borrow my friend's BMW tomorrow, but i'd rather have my beautiful red camaro.)

 

Breaks and idle imply to me major vacume leak.

Squeal, no clue.

Had to jack car up for #1

5/8 socket, swivel, 6" extension, ratchet. That order!!

 

Sounds like you knocked the brake booster vacuum line off. Or at the minimum it is loose. This would cause both the hard brake pedal and the fluctuating RPM.

RBob.

 

 

I had a new set of Standard wires that were bad. Car ran bad after a full tune up. Checked everything, all was Ok. I always keep the last tune up parts, just in case. The last thing I tried was to replace the wires with the old ones. Car ran good. Exchanged the wires for a new set, All Ok. You never know!

 

You definitly knocked the brake booster Vaccum lose, or even off.
All the problems you described are exactly what happens when this vaccum hose is loose or broke. The hose is quite large, so you should see it right away. Just place it back on and start the car, it shoud run fine again.

 

Yes, it was the brake booster hose! Thank you all VERY much.. I knew it had to be something simple...

:hail: :hail: :hail: :lala:

 

its always something simple that we overlook.

 

if your brake booster line is loose, that is a massive vacuum leak, so it should be hard to start maybe too??

Don

 

I did that same exact thing so many times that I finally got pissed and put a worm gear clamp on the hose so it NEVER gets knocked off again.