Pete Chadwell writes:
>The symptoms: Again, this is intermittant. One day last week I drove 25
>miles out of town to see a client and it ran beautifully all the way. But
>it skipped and sputtered all the way home. It doesn't slow you down all
>that much... I could still go 50-55 mph, but if you dip into the throttle
>at all it skips and sputters and pops out the tailpipe. Not a backfire,
>but just a mild poppity-pop sound when trying to accelerate. I say
>"sputtering" because it seems random and irregular, not like a misfire
>where the same cylinder is dead every time around. If you have to go
>uphill it can slow you down, though... if you give it much load at all
>it'll pop and sputter in any gear, especially top gear, and take you down
>to 25 mph. Then the next day on the same hill it'll pull strong and
smooth
>all the way up. Generally, when it's misbehaving you can minimize or
avoid
>it altogether just by keeping an even throttle. But the minute you
>accelerate it'll pop and sputter again.
Pete:
I had this happen once on another type of vehicle, but it certainly sounds
familiar. The problem turned out to be a pinhole in the gas line between
the tank and the carb. (I used to live in NE Ohio where corrosion was
pervasive.) This was difficult to find as the line ran so close to the body
seams on this particular unibody. The car only sputtered going uphill under
acceleration, or under heavy acceleration on flat highway.
Good luck,
Ed
Edward C. Fisher Texas Instruments
edwd@ti.com Dallas, Texas USA
Digital Imaging Division Office (972) 995-6305
Packaging Development Group Pager (214) 410-4669
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