VIDEO ADDED!-Car won't idle right...can't figure it out..

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 20, 2014

10-4 guys. I'll stop beating this dead horse and get a timing light tonite or tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure of anything I may have been missing that could have caused it besides the timing.

PonyGlued · Feb 20, 2014

So when you get her started turn the cap clockwise very very slowly till she starts to run worse from what sounded pretty good to you, then go back counter clockwise till the pinging reduces. Then turn it off and reconnect the SPOUT...you can do it by ear but a timing light or a vacuum gauge would be stellar. Don't forget to lock her down

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 20, 2014

[video=youtube;Hb8WAbQ3fNs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb8WAbQ3fNs&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]
Here's what I'm dealing with.

Joshblck1 · Feb 20, 2014

Hey man, Ive got a similar story, my car idles in neutral well enough but when I put the car in gear, it stalls out if I dont apply any gas, I hope you find whats wrong soon cause it would help me alot, goodluck!

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 20, 2014

Thanks man I do too! It sucks finally having it legal to drive and not being able to get it outta the shed lol

PonyGlued · Feb 21, 2014

She looks awesome and you are almost there, I hope the light does it for you...BTW you were turning the cap way to fast and far

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 21, 2014

PonyGlued said:
She looks awesome and you are almost there, I hope the light does it for you...BTW you were turning the cap way to fast and far

Thanks and I kinda figured I was, but it's my first time doing this lol. I'm fixing to go get a light here shortly and see what I can do then. One thing I know is that when it was running good, the letters on the top of the cap were straight or parallel to the front of the car, it wasn't turned around very far. May be irrelevant though.

PonyGlued · Feb 21, 2014

Its too bad you don't have a vacuum gauge, very handy to have and can do a lot and would do it for you here. The timing light will sit on your shelf for a long time before you ever use it again. Here is how its done and just ignore the carburetor talk, for the older stuff

http://automotivemileposts.com/garage/v2n8.html

Addermk2 · Feb 21, 2014

Do not dick with a vac gauge.

Before you go any further, put a 15/16" socket on your crank bolt,and turn the engine until the balanced shows zero. Remove your distributor cap. Is the rotor pointing in the direction of the #1 plug on the cap? If not, no biggie, just turn the engine over again.

Get the engine set to zero, and take a picture of where your rotor is.

Post it here, and don't do anything else until I look at it.

Sent from my CyanMobileX Evo 4G

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 21, 2014

[MENTION=8201]Addermk2[/MENTION] give me just a little bit and I will. It takes me a while to get a damn photo uploaded to here.

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 21, 2014

[MENTION=8201]Addermk2[/MENTION]

First time I put it on zero, it was facing 180* opposite, so I turned it a full rotation as pictured. Also to add, it's a Rich Porter dizzy and it doesn't have the notch like the original one you had mentioned before...if that's relevant at all. Also for what it's worth I took the throttle body off today and cleaned it and the IAC. Just trying to make sure I have everything covered.

Addermk2 · Feb 21, 2014

you are a tooth off on your distributor installation. Lift the distributor up and turn the rotor one "tooth" to the right (CW). then rotate the distributor to line up your mark with the rotor.

PonyGlued · Feb 22, 2014

ElrodKTPQ_89 said:
Addermk2

First time I put it on zero, it was facing 180* opposite, so I turned it a full rotation as pictured. Also to add, it's a Rich Porter dizzy and it doesn't have the notch like the original one you had mentioned before...if that's relevant at all. Also for what it's worth I took the throttle body off today and cleaned it and the IAC. Just trying to make sure I have everything covered.

Yea you have #1 at 12: o'clock to the engines centerline...it needs to be at 1: o'clock.....I had warned you about that in the other thread I guess

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 22, 2014

Got out here this morning and turned the rotor like you said...still fires up but still runs like absolute sh!t. I know y'all are gonna say to put a timing light on it, which I have one here now...it's just odd to me that it never did this before.
My dad stabbed the distributor when we first put the motor in, and didn't know at the time but we had a couple plug wires mixed up. One of my buddies noticed it and changed the wires. Then when we fired it up it ran perfectly smooth, before putting a timing light on it. I've got a friend who builds engines coming over to look at it in a little bit so maybe we can get it figured out.

PonyGlued · Feb 22, 2014

It must be driving you crazy lol...we all have aggravation moments as we go on learning new things. So you actually made another stab to move the rotor clockwise a bit with the engine at TDC for #1?

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 22, 2014

PonyGlued said:
It must be driving you crazy lol...we all have aggravation moments as we go on learning new things. So you actually made another stab to move the rotor clockwise a bit with the engine at TDC for #1?

Yes, I did. It fired up just as it had been doing but is still missing. And I've quadruple checked all my plug wires to make sure I don't have em crossed. (1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8). And yes it is driving me crazy lol. What makes it worse is that I have a friend who knows all about mustangs, but I can never get him to come help me out...the kind of person you do a lot for but is always too buy when it's your turn.

PonyGlued · Feb 22, 2014

That really stinks, I had a few friends who were like that, and a couple of ladies like that too!! lol...I'm going to search for an image of the inside of the distributor, I used to have it but its gone now. What it showed was the PIP's position when it is about to read the #1 for firing. That I think may be the problem here, with the engine at TDC #1, the #1 rotor timing should be if I remember rightly is the thin vane, the other 7 vane's are all fatter and wider. If the PIP reader is not about to read #1, then that's your problem. I'll search for it, but you just need to look inside at the cup in the distributor, and see if the thin vane is about to pass the reader, with the engine at TDC #1....watch out for static it could hurt the PIP

9838stang · Feb 22, 2014

dumb question but have you tried looking at the crank sensor? my 98 V6 ran like ass before. i checked around. was able to somewhat drive it up to the autozone my me. and had the code checked out. turned out to be the crank sensor.

I have had other issues where it ran bad but it was because of some bad gas i put in and fouled up my plugs....

ElrodKTPQ_89 · Feb 22, 2014

9838stang said:
dumb question but have you tried looking at the crank sensor? my 98 V6 ran like ass before. i checked around. was able to somewhat drive it up to the autozone my me. and had the code checked out. turned out to be the crank sensor.

I have had other issues where it ran bad but it was because of some bad gas i put in and fouled up my plugs....

I don't even think these cars have crank sensors? I don't remember one anyway. I've also pulled all my plugs out and wiped them clean, they had a bunch of black crap on em.