First off, want to say thanks for all the info on this board – I spent a lot of time searching old threads and getting wisdom. Working on my girlfriend’s ’92 RS (auto trans) was a small change from my ’01 Firebird (V6, 5-spd).

What happened: She was driving to work when the car died on her. Cranked, wouldn't catch. Didn’t have time to do anything myself, so the car got towed to a shop. They had found no spark and replaced the cap, rotor, ICM, and IAC. When we got it back the next day, they had set the idle pretty high to keep it from stalling – like 1500-1700 rpm high. Turning down the idle I heard a clear occasional miss. When it missed a few times in a row, the engine would stall out, so the idle stayed turned high. After a while the ECM would get pissed at the raised throttle, and add fuel until the idle slowed down, making the car stall _and_ run pig rich.

So I started with the easy stuff – plugs, wires and coil just in case the Tucson heat had killed them. Ran a bit better but no dice. Timing was about 9*, not the best but not enough to hurt that much. Still stalled out at idle, both in gear, in neutral, you name it. ECM calibration wasn’t the latest but she had never had problems with stalling or hesistation before.

So, time to R&R the distributor, I wanted to change the pickup coil, since that was about the only thing left. It was leaking from the o-ring anyways. When I pulled it I found 2 problems:

1. When the shop replaced the ICM they never heat sink compounded it. They told me they used dielectric grease but it was dry. I even tried arguing on the need for heat sink grease. One possible cause there.

2. I also think they bent a finger or two on the reluctor when they changed out the ICM. Her car had a cheap stamped steel reluctor – there were six “fingers” that bent upwards from the pickup coil, and matched up with a stamped piece on the rotor. One or two were bent a little off from the rest. I think this was the primary cause for the idle miss and stalling.

Instead of trying to bend the reluctor back into shape, I just got a rebuilt distributor from Autozone. Much better looking unit. The reluctor was an actual gear inside another gear and wouldn’t be susceptible to damage like the original. The rebuilt unit also had a much beefier base plate to boot.
The rebuilt unit dropped right in and after setting the timing the car now runs like a champ. Oh, the new dist o-ring and gasket also fixed her oil leak

Lessons learned:

1. Make the time to fix stuff myself, the shop caused as many problems as they fixed.

2. If you have a miss causing stalling at idle, check those wimpy reluctor fingers! They get bent, which probably affects the ignition signal or timing enough to cause a miss. (the car seemed ok during driving though)

-Jeff

 

Yeah, shops don't touch my car, except for MAJOR problems... like: transmission needing a rebuilt kit

other than that, I have done all of my work myself. Granted, it is all "stock exchange" meaning, you put the same thing in that is a replacement for stock, and not modded... but I am learning =)

 

There's nothing wrong with taking a car to a shop for work, the problem is that you have to take the time to talk to people and find a reputable shop. If you just pick the one down the street or one out of a phone book, you'll get a crap shop 90% of the time.

BTW... the pickup with the fingers is GM original. That gives you an idea of how long that pickup has been in there. People always say to rebuild the thing yourself, but I find it much easier to R&R with a new one rather than mess around with taking it out, tearing it down, rebuilding it, then reinstalling. To me, it's worth the $180 to be able to pull the old one out, stab the new one, then have a warranty on the parts in case it fails.

But congrats on fixing that.

 

Well, I did get a rec (from a friend's dad who used to own a used car lot and sent cars there), but looks like they were better at imports than old american pushrod wonder.

Yah, I only took my car in when the extended warranty covered it. Now that hers is up and running, mine's getting the heads and cam workover

 

well for shops not touching my car... it's because i can or want to do most of the work myself... or with a little help. only stuff that is out of my hands is why they touch her.

 

Where is the ICM located? Is it under that cap of the distributor? I have TBI and computer controlled timing.

I'm having almost the same problem