chaseincats

Jumping in VERY late. I had a similar issue to this and changing to this fanclutch fixed it since it grabs harder than the standard Aisin one.

fair point

Everything you said is 100% what was the case - that's pretty incredible. I got the car back yesterday (3/21) and here is the update: The right side (only) adjuster did seize after few uses due to the car sitting for 6 months (driven monthly between 5/25 - 8/25) but in reality sitting since 10/24 due to a variety of issues that needed to be fixed one after the next. Since the adjuster was seized, it did apparently warp the drum. The brake shop ended up grinding off a bit of material on both drums for some reason and then changed the shoes yesterday - and the car stops very well. Honestly, I'm fairly annoyed they didn't just replace the warped brake drum because now the e-brake pulls up about half-way instead of a quarter like it had been with the brand-new drums...but I'm just being picky at that point.

Update and a question Update: the auto-adjuster somehow seized. They removed it, soaked it in PB Blaster, cleaned it, and we're all good. Question: One thing I noticed is when going at freeway speed and pressing the brake pedal with a bit of force (not slamming on the brakes, but not a light touch) the pedal bumps forward and back (like how ABS feels on modern cars). The steering wheel does not wobble, so it shouldn't be warped rotors/pads. I'll bring it back to the shop, but I'm curious if anyone has encountered this before?

Update for you: After driving the car quite a bit, it now starts smoothly which is great but was running quite lean. I pulled the plugs and they were very white - you can see that plug #3 looks very burned which makes sense since that was the cylinder that had the injector that wasn't fully working at start-ups. I put a fuel pressure gauge on it today and here are the numbers: Idle: 32 psi w/15 on air fuel gauge (very lean) - Cruise: 36 psi w/15 on air fuel gauge (lean) - WOT: 40 psi w/13.2 on air fuel gauge (slightly lean for WOT but acceptable) I then noticed the TPS's idle enrichment arm contact was dirty, so I grabbed some sand paper and gave it a good cleaning - the sandpaper came out black to my surprise. After that, I opened the AFM that we went through in the "tuning with an air fuel gauge" thread and moved the gear back and forth. I noticed for the first time that when turning the gear there is a very quiet click with each tooth when turned - I believe the position I had it in was in between one of these clicks. I richened it one click and the air fuel numbers are perfect now: idle - 13.8, cruise 14.5, WOT 12.8 and the car drives awesome. Just for completions sake, I pulled out the fuel injection bible and went through all of the multimeter checks it provides, and everything came out normal. I'll post another update in the coming weeks as it continues to wake itself out of hibernation. I will be checking the plug gap on all of these in the coming days too.

Update: I let the car sit for almost a week, started it Saturday to check for a rough idle, then started/drove it tonight (Monday). Both days the car started smoothly, so I'm assuming the rough-start idle issue was one of the injectors still being gummed up with the old gas and is now getting cleaned out after a few times of being ran. I drove the same route with the same amount of vigor this evening while keeping an eye on the tach in case I experienced the fuel/spark cutout issue and I am happy to report there were no problems this time. I wonder if these are all little gremlins that are working themselves out now that the car is back on the road after so long?

@Zed Head I took a look and the original transistor box is plugged in and is the E12-27 8328 model. The multi-spark box and cable are "Jacobs Electronics." The coil has quite a few wires attached to it as a result.

Will do when I get home from work - stand by

That's great to hear. It looks like a simple-enough installation but where did you find the square plug to connect it to the other side of the plug? I haven't been able to find a write-up for the 1978 version anywhere and the link you sent is for a 77 it seems. Is this the one you bought? I also have a multi-spark system on the car but I don't recall the brand. I remember researching it a while ago and it is a brand that no longer exists but was highly regarded at the time. I can check it tonight. Would I need to pull that system?

I've been reading that the HEI module doesn't work as well and has issues with higher rpms. Have you had any luck with these in the past? There also seem to be a variety of 4-pin HEI modules on amazon. Any idea which one it is?

@Zed Head also, I was reading through the FSM and it looks like testing it requires an oscilloscope. Is there something in here that usually goes bad that can be replaced without using one of those? It looks like there are quite a few of these modules.

Good to know - thanks. It happened twice during the same drive a few minutes apart after the car had been driving for 10+ minutes at around 3k rpm but no issues above or below that. I quickly glanced over at my air/fuel gauge and saw it go max lean (no combustion) then back to standard readings immediately after, but didn't think to look at the tach. Do you mean the ignition box in the cabin, or the pickup coil inside the distributor? The 1978 car has a different ignition module since it is the only year that doesn't have a ballast resistor, right?

This is a cold start issue. The split-second power cutoffs were at operating temperature after driving for 10+ minutes.

Thanks all and interesting idea on the IR gun. I do have one here, so I will put it in the car. A couple of new/interesting observations in the interim: Last time the car was running rough, I pulled/re-inserted the injector connectors one-by-one and found that cylinder 3's made a considerably smaller change in engine rpm when unplugged than the other injectors. Since that day, I've driven the car a few times and it hasn't exhibited that rough start behavior. That said, I was driving it this evening and the car for a fraction of a second lost all power - almost as if the third injector missed its turn (if that even is the issue). The car did not exhibit the rough start prior to this drive. These injectors are only a year or 2 old, but did sit for a while with old gas in them, so I'm curious if one is possibly gummed up and is exhibiting these issues as it sifts through what's in it. I added a bottle of Lucas injector cleaner when I filled the tank up last week and I'm curious if that is helping keep the rough start at bay, or if it is just coincidence. I am curious about the new split-second power drop however. I'm not sure if this helps, and am not sure if it was just the angle I put my ear, but when listening to the injector clicks using the 'put the screwdriver to your ear' trick it sounded like that injector's click was considerably weaker than the others.

Fair - I will grab a gauge next week after the storm passes and get back to you

I haven't tested it since I didn't think the pump would change fuel pressure based on time. I'd have thought the fuel pressure would either be wrong for the duration of the engine running rather than improve over time, no?

Hi all (again) My car runs rough (almost like its not running on all 6-cyls) when it first starts but smooths out after ~30 seconds. The car starts easily with only a few cranks, but then exhibits that behavior once running. This is without using the cold start injector (which I wired to a manual triggering switch). I read that it could be a fuel pressure issue or a failing fuel pressure regulator but it smoothing out after ~30 seconds tells me that wouldn't be it. Any ideas? I am attributing all my recent posts to the car essentially coming out of a 1.5 year hibernation.

Well it looks like we have more fun coming my way. Granted I'm just going to take it back to the brake place, but I'm curious what you guys think: The right rear wheel's e-brake is locked and the wheel won't spin which I confirmed when I jacked it up tonight after a drive. Pulling the e-brake handle up brings it up around 2-ish clicks. I put my phone under the car and pulled the e-brake handle up and down and you can see the e-brake arm that goes into the drum barely moves if at all. I thought the e-brake adjusts itself, how could it have adjusted itself so tight automatically? The left wheel spins perfectly fine with the e-brake handle down btw.

Update for you all - I purchased a Dorman 96034 (for anyone with the same issue) and was able to slide it right on. The driver's side is incredibly easy and didn't require removing anything to install the hose - the passenger's side looks like an absolute nightmare - so I lucked out. Thanks for the help

Replaced the fuel dampener and it started right up with a smooth idle without leaking. I'm assuming the rough idle was a result of the fuel system not having a consistent pressure due to the dampener not dampening, and the system not able to fully pressurize since it was leaking through that unit. Thanks all

Gotcha - I just cleaned the top off, started the car, put my hand over it, and felt gas seeping out so it's definitely dead. Thanks for the link - ordered it. Could this be the/a cause of a rough idle when cold?

Hi all My car has sat for the better part of a year and after having the tank drained of its amber-colored fuel (yuck) and replacing the fuel pump, tank filter, and engine bay filter this weekend, I took it out to get gas just now and noticed the car was slowly dripping fuel. When I got home, I jacked up the car and it feels like there's fuel dripping out of the top of the fuel dampener. I've always heard these were bulletproof - is this a sign of a clog somewhere and that is a relief valve or do these periodically need to be replaced?

I was able to drive it after i gave it a few taps with a hammer. Nervous about it now because I can now drive it further than the driveway. Great news folks are actually able to repair the intake tube - that sounded really involved since you'd need to cut the top open and some how find the holes then weld it back shut. I've popped the top open and the tank itself is fine since it was boiled out/coated about 10 years ago and there isn't any rust on the walls. There's no rust particles in the tank since the Fram filter that sits between the tank and pump is clear - its just the water/gas separating and rusting the pump out internally. Would I need to take the car to some sort of specialty shop to have them fix the intake pipe? I have no idea what kind of place I should be looking for.

@Zed Head Bringing this thread back from the dead since I am sure the above is the case. The car was undrivable for a while due to the issues everyone has helped me through on various threads in this forum these past 1.5 years. Now that it's drivable again, the car will start when I manually trigger the cold start valve (using a switch I wired in the cabin), but if I don't, it's a lot of cranking - once it gets going, it will run rough for a few seconds before it smooths out - I am attributing this to the year+ old gas in there, (do you agree)? There is fuel stabilizer in the tank (but put in after the problem started, so it wouldn't get worse) as well as a bottle of this Heet product recommended on this thread where we worked through why my fuel pump seized (fuel/water separating rusting the pump out internally requiring a periodic smack to turn on). The Heet product was supposed to quell the water issue. I drove the car yesterday for its first proper highway shake-down after sitting for so long and the fuel pump was seized (second time ever) which was odd because I started it twice the day prior - albeit to move it in and out of the driveway for a well deserved wash. Here's the question (finally): Since I have that pinhole air leak in the tank's pickup tube (not visually confirmed but the theory checks all of the boxes considering the symptoms), I can't drive the car past a half tank before it beings to run lean again (confirmed by my air/fuel ratio gauge). I'd of course like to have a fresh tank of gas in there, but I have no means to catch/store/dispose of 9+ gallons of old fuel. Since it has a half gallon of year(ish) old fuel, if I fill the rest of the tank with new fuel, will that be enough for the car to run properly, or will I now have a tank of better(ish) fuel and really do need to find a way to drain the tank in full? Any ideas?

Yep that’s it. Apparently all the ones I’ve found don’t clear the original EFI’s fpr due to its height