first off, my car is an 82, 12a, stock except for rats nest delete and DLIDFIS.

ok, so last night i was at a meet with the rest of the car club im in, and i "showed off" a little bit as i was leaving... i did a small burnout, and immediately after that my car almost would not idle.

it had a crazy miss, was idling at or below 500 rpm's, and the engine was shaking horribly, or i would imagine it was as my shifter was for sure.

the car revs fine and drives fine. the idle got a little better after driving the 30 minutes home. it now idles right about where it did before(~800), but it almost seems like the idle "surges" up and down at idle, not much, guessing about 25-50 RPM's, since it isnt noticed at the tach, but you can hear it and even see it with a timing light.

the timing is good. i just changed my leading plugs the day before yesterday. i havent really checked anything else, as im not sure what to check... fuel filter? any other possibilities?

 

Possible vacuum leak? I had one on my 7 where a vacuum cap on my Holley disintegrated and caused my car to idle like poop. Revved fine, but would almost die at idle.

 

Not the fuel filter; symptoms are backwards. Clogged fuel filter will idle fine but starve while revving.

Check that plug and coil wires are tight, look at fuel level in the bowls, look for anything that may have shaken loose or cracked. Listen for vac leaks.

 

well... its weird, cuz after it warms up, its almost back to normal... i would imagine its not a vacuum leak, all the vac hoses are brand new and i dont see why anything would have shaken loose, the car doesnt hop at all when doing a burnout.. im going to pull the plugs and see what they look like, but they are just a few days old... ill also switch back to stock ignition just to see if it may be one of the ignitors gone bad at the wrong time lol

 

ok, so i pulled the plugs today, the rear one looked good, but the one out of the front rotor smelled like gas pretty bad... went to stock ignition and no change... hard to start and rough idle till completely warm. im lost now lol, idk how to check the level in the bowls, if someone could explain it a lil better that would be awesome lol.. it doesnt look as easy as a holley, where theres literally just a screw on the side of the bowls, whereas i dont see the "bowls" on the nikki...

 

update.. the car fixed itself, lol... i think something got thru the fuel filter into the carb or something cuz its fine now

 

Sort of sounds like vapor lock to me. Putting hand over carb and a hard rev usually cures it. Well after you keep in running a few seconds after.

 

well, it still idles sorta funky when its warming up, so can i do this by myself? hand over carb and rev high? or what?

 

You should be able to since the accelerator linkage is right there. I had this happen to me twice in my 82. The first time I was getting a really weak spark. Replaced the pk ugs and no change, replaced my ignitors with some junk yard spares I stole and no change. Tested my coils and they tested fine but still ran like crap. Replaced the coils and cured my problem.

Second time it was vaporlock and I fixed it with the hand over the carb trick. Worked like a dream.

 

well, i dont think it was vaporlock, i have almost no compression on my front rotor... it never really quit the "weird idle" thing, only got a little better... till i lost the front rotor all together... time for turbo build! lol

 

well, it sucks that you lost the front rotor, but this is a good chance to build a monster engine

good luck, and post lots of pics!