just keep searching for the vacuum leaks, eventually youll get them all and be running, dont be dissapointed with all othr work you HAVE done, your that many steps ahead YOU ARE GAINING!!!

Call me. Might can help but too much to write.

how many hours behing me are you guys? i dont want to call you and ge you while your trying to sleep or anything.

It's earlier here. 1-2 hours. I get off work at 1:30 PM

SHE LIIIIVES!!!!! i got her running again. it was a simple thing.the oring that seals the airflow sensor to the U fitting on the throttle wasnt sealing it properly. i wrapped teflon tape around the bottom of the sonsor and put it back on and it started right up. i then timed to 23 degrees advance at 3000 rpm. thats right right?

Nice job! Feels awesome huh?

Sounds right. With both vacuume lines disconnected. Good Job, Least your timing belt is done.

ok, i need help again. haha. ok, so its running good, kinda. it starts right up, and when you revv it, it sounds amazing!! i hooked up the timing light, and had my sister revv to 3000 rpm. i set the light to 23 degrees advance and turned the distributor to O/T wich is zero where it should be with the light set to 23 advance. it runs real good. however, after it warmed up a little, the idle dropped and it struggles to run. the center caution light flashes and it starts to die unless i give it gas.

the throttle cable is al the way tight so i cant increase the idle that way, the oil pressure drops below one when the caution light comes onand it starts to die. i just changed my oil today too and i checked the level and it was within range. i was filling it up with coolant too and it will fill up then after i run it it will be low again, i expected that.

i was just wondering if idle could be effected by fluid liquids or whatever. or maybe there is still a small vacuum leak? the exhaust is clean, no black or whatever. i saw some white smoke come out when it first started up. but it dissapeared and was clean after that.

is there like an idle control valve or an adjustment on the throttle or something for idle?

also, when i adjusted the distributor to 23 advance, it was all the way over as far as it would go, and one of the spark plug wires was pulled tight. it didnt seem right but idk

ok, new discovery... i went out and made sure i didnt time the distributor off the wrong wire, i didnt, i used the right one. anyway, when it idles bad, the cylinder doesnt fire. the light didnt flash at all when it was idleing bad. so im thinking maybe a bad coil, rotor or distributor cap or plugs or wires? maybe it just needs a real good tune up right now?

what do you think?

Clip the timing light one at a time to each of the spark plug wires, as well as the wire from the coil to the distributor. Timing will only show as correct for #1, but you can at least check for spark.

Check each plug wire with an ohmmeter, wires have low resistance, but the part that connects directly to the plug has a resistor, so about 3k ohms end to end.

run the car at night open the hood and look for ignition wire sparks. If you see any then you need new wires or you could have cracked distributor cap or a bad coil wire

ok, i know the #1 does not fire at low idle. idk about the others. when i start the car and im standing by the hood, i can hear the snap crackle pop of the wires sparking, whether or not the spark is inside or outside the cylinder i dont know. but it doesnt seem to have any sort of problems above about 750 rpm. below that it starts having problems. maybe my alternator is going out. when this was happening, my battery was pretty much dead, i could only get it started with a battery charger on it. maybe the alternator is bad and its having trouble making enough electricity to hold the battery charged enough for sparks accept for when the engine is spinning real fast and that makes the alternator keep up.

could that be? i will defenitly check the wire from the coil to the distributor to see if its a problem at the coil or the distributor. thanks for the help.

if my above theory is correct then i should have very irregular sparks comming from the coil. if that is the case, what would the next step be? how can i troubleshoot to see if its the coil or alternator?

Fully charge the battery. Goofy stuff happens with a low or bad battery.

Coils almost never fail. My money is not on the alternator either. Follow Merlin's advice. You should be able to see what you hear in the dark.

I bought a used coil from 928Intl to test on my 84, old coil "measured" fine with an ohmmeter, but the car ran fine after the coil was replaced. $20 used last I checked.

if you think your hearing the ignition pulses snapping that is a sure sign of bad wires. But do it in the dark to confirm where the snapping is coming from/

WARNING dont spray any flammable liquids into the engine bay with the engine running there is a huge fire danger

ok, so i put my battery on a slow charge and im gonna leave it overnight. if this doesnt solve my idle problem, then ill take the alternator to autozone or whatever and have it tested. if its good, then ill check the voltage to the coil. the spark plug wires look ok but where it attaches to the distributor, they kinda look like a mouse or something chewed on them. it was just in that one spot and the rest of the wire looks good. the part where it looks chewed does not expose any metal wire, just a little bit of the rubber is chipped off.

ok, i charged the battery back up to 100%. that fixed the problem. it runs good, idles good. i drove it into town (about 4 miles) and shut it off and started it, drove it across the street then shut it off and started it again, then drove it home. it ran fine. the gas pedal seems to be not very responsive, it pretty much has to downshift for it to pick up at all. it also has a pretty loud squeal comming from the engine. im pretty sure the fan belt is a little too tight and so the tensioner wheel is tilted a little bit, i think thats causing the squeal.

also, the caution light flashes at 1000 rpm and belowbut when i push the gas it stops flashing and shuts off