Engine miss and Air filter Oil level

[Jim Fraser]

Hi,

I have a 72' 1.7l. Tonight I decided to check/change the oil in the air filter and check all of the vacuum lines. Well, the lines seem fine (I think I will change them anyway, God knows how old they are) but the filter was low on oil, and what was left was dirty. The manuals say fill up to the "oil level" mark...slight problem here...my aircleaner doesn't have one, I think. There is a very faint red line along the lip of the lower baffle in the filter, about 3 cm long, is this the line? I hope so, this is what I am using as a guideline for now...

Secondly, one of the tech articles I've read mentioned checking if the butterfly is open when the throttle is fully depressed. Mine wasn't, there was about a 8mm gap between the stops. Anyway, i adjusted the butterfly properly as per the manual, re-installed my airfilter, hooked up and checked my vacuum lines and test drove the car. My miss or stumble comes in when the car is under hard accelleration, it's fine at cruise. Idle is also ok, but idle speed is a bit low, maybe I fixed a few vacuum leaks.. To me it sounds like the Throttle position sensor is out of adjustment. Could the fact that i now actually have WOT made my new stumble show up? Should I just diconnect the TPS and drive the car to see if the problem is gone? The car ran perfectly before I adjusted the butterfly and cleaned/refilled the airfilter (well, the idle was a tiny bit erratic when the engine was cold).

Sorry if was a bit long winded...

Jim Fraser

P.S. Anyone here live in SW Ontario Canada?

[JP Noonan]

I'll look at my 72 filter housing this weekend, but I'd say you should maybe ditch the oil bath filter and use the 73 1.7L paper element. IF there is too much oil in the filter could that starve the engine of air causing the stumble? Maybe. Try a few runs without the filter and see if the engine responds better.

To diagnose the TPS, yes just unplug it. A bad TPS usally causes a stumble at cruise not acceleration. Is the stumble at WOT acceleration or just normal accel? if it is during normal acceleration then maybe it is the TPS, IF it ALLWAYS happens at the same spot. TPS's usally go bad because the contacts wear out, or the little wire (the sensor for WOT and idle) breaks off. Look at the tech article section on this site, I think there is an article on setting the TPS and how to clean it.

Another thing, make sure the vac hose to the MPS is air tight.

[Jim T]

Absolutely, you should ditch the '30 technology oilfilled air filter! The later paper filter air filter/housing fits right on, and is readily available, cheap. Its just a better unit all around, for a variety of reason.