What's going on here??

[beavis911]

'78 SC. My last post was that the alternator light came on and the consensus was alternator/regulator rebuild/replace. Prior to removal I drove it about 2 miles to the store and sure enough when I came out the battery was dead AAA had to jump. The car ran good on the way home no problems. Then I remove the alt & reg tooK to the re-builder to check, all checked out to be good the only thing they did was put in some brushes while they had it there. Reinstalled everything and this is where part 1 of 2 problems started. Once the alt was back in and I put the fan belt on (used the 2 shims that were there before) the belt was extremely loose, tooK out the shim still too loose, had another belt a factory one from the tool kit it was way too tight even with all of the shims I had. It was late so I sacrifice an old feeler Gage and shimmed the bottom of the alt about .060 the belt is still loose but better. The car started sounded good no alt light on.

Next day I start it, drive to the gas station it starts popping and bucking, got gas and barely made it home?? soooo the questions are:

what happened to the belt adjustment cause it still ain't right?

why does it run like sh%t now? I have checked the connections and don't see anything out of the norm. It starts OK, but when you give some gas it starts to pop and buck.

please help!!!!

thanks
Beav

[steven polaski]

Sounds like you have a ground or power issue check connections to frame. Also sometime the connections corode , do you have points ? could be a bad suppresor.

[beavis911]

had the engine & trans out a couple of weeks ago so the ground strap is clean and good. I have the electronic ignition...no points

thanks

[steven polaski]

Do you have a noise coming out of the c.d.i if thats not getting juice you could have this problem. My car had a loose power connection and would start but run terrible. You could have a blocked gas line also how is the gas filter

[beavis911]

I've had the car since '88 and have never change the fuel filter. When I replaced the front to rear fuel lines last month the tank was empty, I pulled out the screen in the bottom, it was very clean no gunk of any kind. That doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with the filter in the rear. Is there any way to check that without replacing it? Now you say noise comming from the c.d.i box, if it a high pitched ring then it is doing that.

thanks Steve

[steven polaski]

That's good to hear that high pitched noise I would replace the filter it's easy to do and you can eliminate that from your problems.

[Eagledriver]

When you adjusted the belt did you put the unused shims on the outside of the pulley? If you don't the nut will not tighten onto the outside pulley piece and you'll have a loose belt. To check the electrical system do the following:
Check the voltage on the system to see if you have 14 volts with engine running and 12 without.

-Andy

[Brother]

Grab the harness that is connected to the firewall. Give it a good massaging.

I had a very similar problem because one of the wires in the harness was coming apart. That harness has everything for the fuel delivery. I had lost a ground to the frequency valve.

[azasadny]

Beav,

Did you knock a vacuum hose loose? I'd check all of the hoses...

[bigchillcar]

you haven't changed the fuel filter since '88?? did i read that correctly? i'm amazed you don't get lots of stuttering and stalling as a result of that! anyway, you need to make sure you have the total number of shims your engine came with and are using them. as andy said, the unused shims are still necessary on the outside of the pulley. what's the chance that you have a bad battery? it's cheap insurance to change these every 2 years whether you think you need one or not. if you haven't changed a fuel filter since '88..how old is your battery?
ryan