Hi all, I'm new to the board but not new to the 2.3 L stangs. I have had a 79 Pace with the great 2.3 carbed turbo, 84 SVO (White) and 85 SVO (Black). Just picked up a smoking deal on a 92 Hatch 2.3 / AT to keep miles off my 2k Lightning. I'm sticking with an auto as my wife can't push a clutch and I'll put 50 miles a day in stop and go traffic so swapping to a T5 is out. I think I have a multitude of issues, probably all tracked back to 1 friggin vac line or something stupid like that.
Here is what's going on:
92, a4ld, power everything, was owned by a non-informed girl, I have no real history of the car I trailered it home yesterday ($500 and pretty clean)
There appears to be a short (I'm guessing this is the alarms faul as the doorlocks only randomly work and it's got a crappy alarm in it, that doesn't work...) I don't know where the short is but it is there. A/C+headlights = about 12 volts while running on the gauge.
I changed all the plugs, gapped to .44. Changed the PCV, pulled the TB and cleaned it with some $5 spray cleaner, then read the Ford CD where it stated many times "do not clean" sorry it had over 1/4 inch of sludge and was sticking. fully ignoring the yellow sticker on it. I pulled the IAC off and cleaned it as well (the plunger feels really lose unlike my Lightnings). Patched up some busted vacuum lines and put in a new battery.
Now when I went to get the car the girl said it ran, it hardly ran, the vacuum line that appears to go to the trans pretty much collapsed, played with it a bit and it would stay running, around 1300 rpm. Dropped it in drive and the trans clunked like everything was fine, but give it gas and it revs out. Now the car feels like it has the E brake on when this happens but it's not on. Rev the motor out to about 2500 rpm and it will move. It had a top speed of about 3 miles an hour, Just enough for me to get it on the trailer. I started working on it today and checked the level, about 1/2 qt to a qt low, no biggie. Put in some Mercon V and it started to move, fairly well I might add. I drove it down the block. No leaks, just really poor performance, like quite a bit of missing but I was able to run it through all the gears. I drove down the block with it in drive, then bumped to OD, then stopped, the trans decided to as well. I was right back to 2500 rpm and freewheeling. I added another 1/4 qt of Mercon, it didn't seem to care. I noticed I could get it to move if I revved it up to about 2000 rpm and let it drop, pretty much surging the throttle. Then it started burping smoke, when this happened the trans started working again. I was able to drive it the 1 mile back to the house, which I wasn't looking forward to pushing the car back. I no sooner get to my driveway and it putz out again.
I mess with it surging the throttle with no luck. Then put it in REV and sat there for about 30 seconds, for fun I turned the a/c on about 2 seconds later Clunk I'm in REv and it works. I put it in Drive I'm back to freewheeling and no forward. Now the car starts revving on it's own to about 1500 rpm. If I key off and start it back up it idles around 600 rpm. As soon as I tap the gas above 1000 rpm it revs up to about 1500 and stays there. So I have pretty much have rev only but even that takes a little work to get working.
While I'm messsing with the trans issues I tried to rev out the motor. It falls on it's face in park or N. Spittiing and sputtering all the way to the red line. There is a spit right off idle, smooth from 1000 to 2000 rpm then spits all the way to the red line. It takes a good 10 seconds to hit the red line. I put Bosch platinum plugs in it (gapped at 44) and it smoothed out the idle and off idle stumble but it still spits and sputters.
I really thing my troubles are vacuum related and I'll be replacing the trans vacuum module tomorrow. I did notice that what ever the piece is on the pass. strut tower with the red and green vac lines running into it sucks in air when I put a vacuum on the system, is this right? and what might that thing do? The trans fluid isn't burnt and it's not leaking out of anywhere except the trans vacuum module. The car is suffering big time from Fords over oiling of the upper intake but I think I got most of that cleaned out. I did totally ignore the yellow warning of "Don't attempt to clean this" so I might have to get a throttle body. If I have to get a tranny I could probably come across a C4 and have a drive shaft made it's not that big of a deal. I'm just hoping I can keep my costs down as so far I have about $600 into it and it's in really good shape. I also noticed the airbag light blinks 5 times then pauses then 5 times the whole time the car is running. I also only threw 1 soft code while I was randomly unplugging vacuum lines while it was running. The plan is to possibly turbo it down the road but I guess I'd be doing a swap for that.
Any help, pointers and tips are more than helpful as I'm out on a limb so far.
Thank you, and sorry for the near novel of an intro.
Erik in Sunny AZ http://www.azsvt.com/gallery
2000 Lightning
2003 Predator
1992 LX
2005 Scion xA
Here is what's going on:
92, a4ld, power everything, was owned by a non-informed girl, I have no real history of the car I trailered it home yesterday ($500 and pretty clean)
There appears to be a short (I'm guessing this is the alarms faul as the doorlocks only randomly work and it's got a crappy alarm in it, that doesn't work...) I don't know where the short is but it is there. A/C+headlights = about 12 volts while running on the gauge.
I changed all the plugs, gapped to .44. Changed the PCV, pulled the TB and cleaned it with some $5 spray cleaner, then read the Ford CD where it stated many times "do not clean" sorry it had over 1/4 inch of sludge and was sticking. fully ignoring the yellow sticker on it. I pulled the IAC off and cleaned it as well (the plunger feels really lose unlike my Lightnings). Patched up some busted vacuum lines and put in a new battery.
Now when I went to get the car the girl said it ran, it hardly ran, the vacuum line that appears to go to the trans pretty much collapsed, played with it a bit and it would stay running, around 1300 rpm. Dropped it in drive and the trans clunked like everything was fine, but give it gas and it revs out. Now the car feels like it has the E brake on when this happens but it's not on. Rev the motor out to about 2500 rpm and it will move. It had a top speed of about 3 miles an hour, Just enough for me to get it on the trailer. I started working on it today and checked the level, about 1/2 qt to a qt low, no biggie. Put in some Mercon V and it started to move, fairly well I might add. I drove it down the block. No leaks, just really poor performance, like quite a bit of missing but I was able to run it through all the gears. I drove down the block with it in drive, then bumped to OD, then stopped, the trans decided to as well. I was right back to 2500 rpm and freewheeling. I added another 1/4 qt of Mercon, it didn't seem to care. I noticed I could get it to move if I revved it up to about 2000 rpm and let it drop, pretty much surging the throttle. Then it started burping smoke, when this happened the trans started working again. I was able to drive it the 1 mile back to the house, which I wasn't looking forward to pushing the car back. I no sooner get to my driveway and it putz out again.
I mess with it surging the throttle with no luck. Then put it in REV and sat there for about 30 seconds, for fun I turned the a/c on about 2 seconds later Clunk I'm in REv and it works. I put it in Drive I'm back to freewheeling and no forward. Now the car starts revving on it's own to about 1500 rpm. If I key off and start it back up it idles around 600 rpm. As soon as I tap the gas above 1000 rpm it revs up to about 1500 and stays there. So I have pretty much have rev only but even that takes a little work to get working.
While I'm messsing with the trans issues I tried to rev out the motor. It falls on it's face in park or N. Spittiing and sputtering all the way to the red line. There is a spit right off idle, smooth from 1000 to 2000 rpm then spits all the way to the red line. It takes a good 10 seconds to hit the red line. I put Bosch platinum plugs in it (gapped at 44) and it smoothed out the idle and off idle stumble but it still spits and sputters.
I really thing my troubles are vacuum related and I'll be replacing the trans vacuum module tomorrow. I did notice that what ever the piece is on the pass. strut tower with the red and green vac lines running into it sucks in air when I put a vacuum on the system, is this right? and what might that thing do? The trans fluid isn't burnt and it's not leaking out of anywhere except the trans vacuum module. The car is suffering big time from Fords over oiling of the upper intake but I think I got most of that cleaned out. I did totally ignore the yellow warning of "Don't attempt to clean this" so I might have to get a throttle body. If I have to get a tranny I could probably come across a C4 and have a drive shaft made it's not that big of a deal. I'm just hoping I can keep my costs down as so far I have about $600 into it and it's in really good shape. I also noticed the airbag light blinks 5 times then pauses then 5 times the whole time the car is running. I also only threw 1 soft code while I was randomly unplugging vacuum lines while it was running. The plan is to possibly turbo it down the road but I guess I'd be doing a swap for that.
Any help, pointers and tips are more than helpful as I'm out on a limb so far.
Thank you, and sorry for the near novel of an intro.
Erik in Sunny AZ http://www.azsvt.com/gallery
2000 Lightning
2003 Predator
1992 LX
2005 Scion xA