Going to the gym after work. As I was heading down the road (2nd gear about to shift), there was a massive loss in power and then it died 3 seconds after the decrease. Now I did a search and I'm on the way to the store to buy some spark plugs and fuel filter. The car is in a business parking lot. I'll try the fuel pump tapping thing. All my lights work, battery is good, engine cranks, no leakon the ground. Just doesn't catch. I haven't pulled the plugs YET, but wanted to see what else to look for while I'm out there.

 

are you positive that there is gas in the tank? i know it sounds like a crazy question but you would be suprosed how many times people are fooled by lack of gas

 

yeah, just yesterday I put in 10 gallons with a treatment of SeaFoam. Also, Just got back from the car(still hasn't started). Battery has juice, here's what the old plugs look like(I just replaced them with NGK BR8EQ-14):




They had a little bit of rust on them(don't mistake that for oil or goo....), probably 'cause the previous owner didn't use Di-Electric Grease

Edit: There wasn't a heavy smell of gas or anything, plugs were also dry. Could that be a hint about the fuel pump being bad?

 

nope, if they are dry thats a good thing. meaning that compression is good and the air fuel mixture is being burned efficiently. the plugs are evenly worn looking and have the color of an engine that is in good condition. maybe a pinch lean but not too bad overall. i would inspect the fuel pump for proper operation, make sure it is getting proper voltage to it and you can test by removing the fuel feed line from the carb and making sure it is in a can that will hold gas, crank the engine and see how much fuel comes out, if it looks sufficient. that, or you can run a fuel pressure test with a gauge. the fuel filter would also be a likely candidate for a replacing. sounds fuel related. hope this helps.

 

That's what I was figuring, I'll try your trick when I get off of work tomorrow, luckily the new fuel pump will only run me about 39-49 dollars at O'Reilly's. As for the gausge thing, I'm not exactly a car wizz(yet), but my pops is coming along, he'll give me a hand. He might as well be Mr. Craftsman, lol. Thanks for the responses. I think I just really needed reassurance. I'll pick up the fuel filter tomorrow and the fuel pump. I'll probably just go ahead and replace them both(just as a somewhat-too late aparantly- preventative maintenance). I'll just have a spare if the old one is still good.

 

let us know your progress after you are finished. i am curious to know the result

 

sure will.....I bought the new fuel pump today. Are these things pretty much a bolt and go? Man, I'm in such a good mood, my bike just sold on ebay for the buy it now price! SCORE....Thanks for the responses. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

You mentioned the PO didn't use any Di-Electric Grease and therefore the plugs had rust on them. It's hard to tell from the pics, but is the rust on the threads? If so, did you slather up the threads of the new plugs with Di-Electric Grease? That's a no-no. You should have used anti-seize. Di-Electric means electrical insulator and is great for preventing arcs from jumping out of the spark plug boot, but could wreak havock a spark plug's grounding ability if gooped all over the threads.

Of course this could easily turn into another one of those '84-'85 fuel pump weirdness threads. Check your trailing ignitor if you haven't already.

 

Okay guys here's the deal....Went back outside today after doing a search ont eh forum. Double checked my fuses and sure enough, my 20 fuse(Engine) was blown. Cool I thought, replaced it and the car started up like a champ. All excited, I take the new fuel pump back to O'Reilly's and get my 51 bucks back. Walk out the front door and silence. Engine turns and turns, but no catch. To be on the safe side, I replaced teh fuel filter thinking it was clogged, nope, clean as a whistle. 20 fuse(engine) was blown again. I replace the fuse again and go by a good friends place where he has a look under the hood. Looked at the distributer cap and rotor(you could see where it was arcing, no good). Went and picked up a new cap and rotor(now I know why I was getting crappy mileage). Get back to the house and still the same prob. Car turned over and once again blew a fuse. Replaced it once more, car started and warmed up like a champ. Turned it off/on a couple of times, no probs. To be on the safe side, I've left the car at his place over night so we can look at it more when I get off of work wednesday. So I just goota have a short some where I guess. I did a search for blowing engine fuse and got some possible places. But what else could be going on here you think. Here's what the search pulled up:

-Look for starter wire, see if it fell off the post and grounded itself.
-Check coil wires(black/yellow ones) as they may have also grounded themselves out.
-Check ring terminal of coil. May have contact with the coil itself.
-Check trailing ignition.

I'm not fed up with this car, love it. But have other things I wanna do to it. But this just throws my trust out the window(faith in the vehicle on a trip).

If the fuel pump was going bad, could it be popping the fuse? It was my thinking that the fuel pumps just flat out quit(not fade out).

I know when the fuse pops or when the car is tough on startup, it acts like it wants to die when I ease on the gas.

Hope I've been descriptive enough. This is my first rotary. Any other good phrases I could use in the search? I was searching for about an hour.

 

bump

 

on an 85 the fuel pump doesn't share the engine fuse that I know of. I believe it's actually the accessory or radio (someone hop in here with the wiring diagram to help?).

Come to think of it, the wiring diagram would show you what components are on the engine fuse - would definitely help trace down the problem.

 

sorry it's been so long since my update....I figured teh problem out shortly after my last post on here. There was a bolt just BARELY threading into another wire causing a short.....I'll have a pic up in a day or so in case anyone else may have the same issue sometime.