[lessonsinspeed]

I'm having some problems with my 84/86 autox car. On the return voyage roughly a month and a half ago after a day of running great at autox, the battery light turns on, the car loses power, and the tach goes crazy (as reported by my co-driver). I finally got a chance to take the car for a drive today myself, and there is a serious bucking (stumbling) problem around 3000 rpm. Once past roughly 3750-4000, the car pulls strong. In addition to this problem, the car died twice as I was bringing it in, with the accompaning battery light.

To sum up:
Crazy tach (once)
Loss of power (once)
Battery light
Dies
Bucking problem at ~3000 (misfire?)

Any ideas on what this might be? I will be redoing any poorly done wiring in the car tomorrow, checking for good ground contacts, etc. I've heard that the alternator or ignitor may be behind it. Can anyone back that up? (We are running a much smaller battery than stock).

 

[BlackCRX]

bad alternator?

put a volt meter on the battery and see what it shows
idle should be around 12v and when you rev it, should be around 14v

possible that the bushings on the alternator are worn out

replacement bushings for it are like $5-10

 

[rex2nr]

sounds like an ignitor problem to me, but when mine went in my 89, I don't recall a battery light

 

[xxpaulcpxx]

I'd say your distributer might be toast.

 

[SleeperCRX]

It might be your Dist. like paul said.
Cause when mine went out on me there was definatly hesistation and bucking, and loss of power in my lower RPM's. It turned out to be my CKP sensor inside my Dist. and I had to replace the whole thing.
Also check your Alternator belt, make sure its not to loose. It could be that your battery light may be coming on because your belt is to loose, and the Alt. is not charging the battery.
Also check to see if your ECM is throwing codes.

 

[dohcrxl]

replacement bushings for it are like $5-10

Do you mean brushes?

Hey Joel, wassup? Been MIA for the longest.

Anyway, I'm leaning wiring first then distributor next.

-Heu

 

[lessonsinspeed]

Not much... school has kept me off the forums for awhile. Looks like the resource is dying out and the community is the place to be, so I'll probably be spending more time here now.

Anyways, anyone got a distributer laying around :wink: ?

 

[lessonsinspeed]

Alright, the update: I got another dizzy on the car. Within 5 seconds of leaving on a drive, the car started bucking again, then promptly died when I put in the clutch. So:

Dizzy/Igniter is out

What else could it be? I'm going to test the battery/alternator tomorrow. Could the coils somehow be at fault? ECU?

 

[SETI20]

CHeck the dizzy wiring again.
I went through 3 dizzies trying to find my problem only to find out one of the connectors was bent and made a bad contact.

 

[xxpaulcpxx]

I would also look closely at all your ground wire connections.

 

[downest]

If you need a new dizzy, I know of a complete 85 Si (pretty sure it's an Si, it's PGMFI).

 

[Robb]

Its a bad alternator..

 

[CRX_2NV]

The car can run smooth off of just a battery so I don't THINK an alternator would cause the bucking. I had something similar happen when my ground came loose from the valve cover. I'd have a good connection whenever it swung in contact of somethin lol but then I wouldn't when it lost its connection, that creating a bucking with my lights going crazy and my tech.....