chaseincats

I pulled the plugs and they were gapped to 1.0 not 1.1 even though I was sure I gapped them to 1.1. Just to cover all of my bases before I really went overboard with below-spec spark gaps again, I changed the gap to 1.1 and the car runs great. I don't understand why the car ran well at less than 1.0, poorly 1.0, and great at 1.1 considering factory spec is 1.0-1.1. Either way, we're sitting pretty now. Thanks all and hopefully this is the end of the drama!

oreilly sells rebuilt ones - why not just pick one of those up?

I have a cone air filter so it shouldn't be a mouse nest issue especially since it's kept in a sealed garage. It really should be the plug gap modification since it was an immediate change in power loss. I gapped all of the plugs because I dropped one (like a dummy) when I took it out and when I checked the others - they were all considerably smaller than the 1.0-1.1mm gap in the picture you sent from the FSM. If I had to guess, I might have done the Canadian gap by mistake back in the day. Is there a reason Canada uses the smaller gap?

I’m not sure what you mean, can you elaborate a bit?

Update for you: I noticed the spark plug gap was small (I believe .9mm but I don't remember how small specifically) so I gapped them all to ~1.1 which is the maximum gap in the fsm. The car seems to be considerably down on power and I need to press the pedal further to get the same power as before I messed with the gap. Oddly, the car idles noticeably smoother than before, it just is considerably down on power which doesn't make sense. Any idea why that would be and if I should reduce the gap to below 1mm like it was before?

If your condenser fan is wired to turn on with the AC, you may be able to test it without starting the car/belt fan by putting the key in 'on', turning the cabin fan on, then switching to AC. Confirming you have the fan shroud on? That is paramount for cooling.

yep that's the Aisin one - that didn't help me, only the one I linked to on Amazon brought my temp gauge to normal

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.