Dies when put into gear

It died today after work. Dad doesn't want to mess with it any more so I'm going to see if the Nissan dealership will look at it. I ****in hate this car.

EDIT: went out and tried it again and now it's fine. Idling where it should be and went into gear just fine, but it's also fully warmed up. We're going to go pick the brain of our mechanic friend at the dealership and see if he can think of anything and I'll also try it again tomorrow when the engine is cold again and see what it does.

I still ****in hate this car, though.

-Chelle

Sounds like you fixed most of the problem.

Do you have A/C?

Is it stalling only when the A/C compressor is engaged?

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...0002_743627_-1

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No AC. Just my windows, cowl/underdash vent and 65 mph.

Have you checked the breaker plate for movement?
from your discreptions it sounds like the bushings are bad or it needs to be lubed.

It will make it run poorly and stall when it can't advance or retard the timing with the vac advance control.

Could be why you were having that 60* problem.

PB

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The 60* problem was fixed by replacing all the electronic ignition stuff.

BlackGMC said:

On a cold start up how long do you let it idle before putting it into gear? Do you just start it up and drop it into gear then it dies????

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I always let it warm up for at least 30 sec - 1 minute (today I let it warm up through 1/2 of Let it Be by the Beatles ) . And when it was getting really bad (back in my 7-attempts-just-to-get-out-of-the-parking-lot days), I'd even let it warm up a full two minutes/until the needle came off the "C" on the temp gauge.

You may not have your choke setup up properly now. I had the same carb you do, and at cold start up the choke would make it idle roughly 1000rpm, then after a min or two I would reve the motor and it would come down to ~700rpm. Does yours do this?

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Actually, I think the choke (sort of) was part of the problem today. I don't think I tapped the gas before starting it up so the choke didn't engage and it was idling really low (around 700 rpm - but yes, it normally idles higher then after a little while if I tap the gas, the idle drops down - it didn't do it this afternoon, though) so when I put it in gear, the idle dropped even lower. We did a little more tweeking with the carb and I'm going to make a conscious effort to make sure I stomp the gas before starting it up (I generally do anyway, but this was just one of those oddball days) and let it warm up a full minute before putting it in gear.

That said, something still isn't right. There's still too much of a difference between the idle in park/neutral and when I put it in gear. To get it to idle around 700 - 800 in gear, the idle is around 1500 - 1600 in park/neutral. There's practically nothing left on the engine to replace/fix so it's got to be something in the tranny. I've already got the tranny rebuild kit already and I have 3 days off next weekend so we're going to try to get the tranny out of my parts car and start rebuilding it then.
And I'm still really hating this car right now.

-Chelle

Double post

I actually let my dad do all the carb adjusting (about the only thing I'll just let him do w/o me having a hand in it - I suck at carb tuning) so I'll have to ask him what all he's done. But it's grounded to one of the bolts on the top of the carb (I guess I can try grounding it to the block somewhere) and the power is coming from the starter relay.

-Chelle

Sorry it took a while to get back, I've been really busy that last couple of days.

Here's the pics of the carb:
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie/sadie2/engine/carb01.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie/sadie2/engine/carb02.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie/sadie2/engine/carb03.jpg
http://chelle.mine.nu/sadie/sadie2/engine/carb04.jpg

It's been running kind of so-so the last few days. I've been making sure to let it warm up at least 1 full minute, sometimes 2. Sometimes when I start it up, it will idle at 1000 - 1200 then drop down to 800 in gear and idle a bit rough (and it died once today at work). Other times it will idle at 2000, then after a minute, I'll tap the gas and it will drop down to 800 - 1000 and sometimes it will do okay when I put it in gear (night before last, it ran absolutely perfectly) and other times it will idle rough and try to die. And today I was at a stop light (just missed the green so I had to sit for a while) and it started idling rough so I threw it into neutral until the light changed (this was about a mile or two from work so it was close to being fully warmed up). So it's kind of hit or miss how it runs (or starts out because once it gets going, it does really well) but it's not bad enough that I can't drive it . . . yet.

EDIT: Oh, and I don't have a PCV valve on the car at the moment, but I did have one on it before I changed the engine. Right now there's a breather cap on the pass. side valve cover and on the driver's side cover the cap is supposed to have a hose on it that goes up to a connector on the base of the air filter, but right now, I don't have a hose on it (gotta dig though my garage and find a chunk of hose that will fit).

-Chelle

bnickel said:

you should probably put your throttle return spring somewhere besides on teh throttle linkage too, that is not a safe place fo it. i doubt it will fix your stalling problem but it might help, that is very possibly the reason the idle is fluctuating so much. it needs to attached to something that doesn't move, like an intake bolt or one even one of those wire holddown clamps you have on the valve cover bolts.

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LOL. Yeah, it was causing the car to idle at around 3000 rpm the other day. That thingie (sorry, don't know the name) between it and the carb was getting stuck. I'll try to get it moved tomorrow. And I have a 3 day weekend coming up so I plan on getting some other stuff (like swapping out the coil) done then.

-Chelle

I haven't had a chance to work on it yet, but here's a little update.

It's kind of settled in to idling at around 1000 in park and around 800 in gear and I've found that if I start moving as soon as I put it into gear, it does perfectly, ven if I only let it warm up for 30 seconds or so. It hasn't died since the last time I posted about. If we can't get it any better than this, I can totally live with it (I'd like it to be perfect, but the way it is now, really isn't that bad and with it being temperamental, that just means it will be harder to steal. ).

It does still do the rough idle/missing after sitting a while at a red light so I'm going to try bumping the idle up just a little (maybe get it to idle around1100 - 1200 in park and 900 - 1000 in gear). That may very well be all it needs.

But having said that, I'm still going to rebuild Sadie's tranny because I need to anyway. This tranny slips going into 3rd and I still need to learn about trannys so I need the experience. And I'm going to relocate that throttle spring.