turn the key, car sputters on gas and stops ????
 

Okay, so the title of this thread is my problem. Here's a little background:

I didn't get a good brake bleed and had to make a short stop which ended up in the car NOT stopping and crashing the front passenger corner into a giant gravestone (ouch!). To me it was a better option than a tree or a house. I fixed the body and replaced the headlights. When the accident occurred the jolt to a stop must have disconnected my terminal clamps because my battery died.

Since the accident my old battery kept draining out and wouldn't hold a charge. I drove the car for 5 minutes after jump starting it and the alternator belt snapped. Turns out the alternator went kaput. So I bought one from a friend's parts stash that also came from a FC. I swapped it in and with a jump start it worked fine. Time to get a new battery...

I then got new clamps and a new battery. I also threw on a new K&N air filter because the old one was bad anyway. Oh, and I also got my brakes bled so they now function properly! Wahoo. But here's the new problem...

When I turn the key, the car sputters. It can start if I gas it up but the second I let go of the gas the car just chokes out and quits on me. It's very unstable. I don't know why it's doing this and by this point I'm getting very frustrated! (last NYRA meet on Sunday, and I need to move the car by Friday morning - tomorrow - because of street cleaning too!!) So what can I do??? I'm wondering if it might be a vacuum leak or the fuel pump/lines? Does anyone have any insight to this on where I can look when I get out of work Thursday afternoon???

charge your battery.and then check the connection to the AFM...since you Changed an air filter sometimes the connector doesn't attach onto the Pins right..that could be the problem.

You were right, the connector was loose, thanks!

Now I need to figure out why my battery keeps draining since the accident... hmmmm

You may have shorted a wire on either you headlights or your signal/Marker lights..try this:poke around the passenger Front area,where the Air box used to be.There is a hold where the wires go through the frame to the Marker lights..see if that is the culprit...........Oh,and with this guess,I am trying to be Correct Twice!.LOL!

Well I think you may be 2 for 2! Just before sundown today I had a few minutes to check out the car a bit and in that region I inspected the wires with a flashlight. The cluster of wiring that goes to that front passenger headlight had a tear in the outer coating that sliced right into the black wire of the cluster, which I'm assuming is the ground, and that part of the cluster lined up with the hole the wire passed through. No time to fix and test before nightfall today. Weather predicts rain for a couple days here in NY so once I get a chance I'll patch that and do a follow-up. If this works you are definitely a life saver!

FIXED!!

After cutting out and reconnecting the sliced & rotten section of ground wire going to my front passenger marker light, doing the same on another wire elsewhere in the engine bay, and getting rid of a rotten rubber tube that cased over a bundle of wires and had somehow become waterlogged, plus quite a bit of electrical tape and a few connectors, my baby is back in business with no battery drain! And to think I was actually about to go and pay someone to diagnose this because of all the headaches! Thanks for all the tips!

It's a good thing I've replaced one part to another and given it only about 300 miles of road time tops since the middle of summer so now that it's almost November I need to hibernate! Haha. My baby hates life, but that's okay, one day she will learn! Can't wait to see what problems 2009 brings! Haha.