StupEd05

Yeah I would imagine not having an O2 sensor prolly hurts my gas mileage, or atleast thats what I have been told. My AFM track doesnt look so good as the 0-2k range looks like the blackness is sorta coming off. I will look into a replacement AFM as soon as funds go in. Its a tolerable issue till then (hell, I've tolerated it for the last year, whats 2 weeks!).

You say TPS was an issue you had? Could you explain how an issue with the TPS could cause something like this??? (just interested thats all)

testarossa_td

You see those grooves in your AFM tracks...think along those lines.
You want a truely unserviceable item...TPS! And it can fail anywhere along the track and diagnosis is really a bi...you see where I am going. Again as funds, get your AFM, then if the problem does not go away, add yourself a used TPS.
These are really cheap items to take care of a "annoying" problem.
Like you said I dealt with it until it put my life in jeapordy, pulling out into traffic!
After that....there was no limit to my stamping that problem out!!!
I originally described my problem as the model T problem. Because it was like driving a model T(which I have) dangerous at any speed.-RIP corvair

StupEd05

I'll prolly go the route you suggested. You say it happened pulling out into traffic? So your saying the car was running fine, you pull out and give it gas and it drops cylinders??? Cause thats EXACTLY the way mine is acting, except once the engine is warm it NEVER happens. So I guess that made me think something temp. And if it were a bad spot on my AFM wouldnt it happen everytime it swept across that point? And not just when it was cold? Sorry if I sound skeptical, I know it HAS to be one those components Im just trying to understand WHY its causing it to act this way.

testarossa_td

I wish I had a point and shoot answer for you.
You would think that it would be consistent, having to sweep across the same location. However, with electricity and heat expansion of metals, degradation of contact material ...that point moves just enough until finally there is enough of a gap that neither voltage or the slight expansion of the metal can cover the spread and it fails. That is why sometimes you can blip the throttle to get past it(AFM/TPS) because now you are doing a mechanical fix to "bounce" past the dead spot.
It started sporadically and I would keep an eye on it(first thing I did was buy an Air fuel ration/duty meter) and see what was actually going on. Then I started taking pieces off(cheapest most common areas first). But when it pulled that "drop cylinder garbage" on me right as I was trying to accelerate across two lanes of traffic to the turn lane...I had enough.

Safety first means you last

With an NA you should not have near the issues a turbo can have. Age is your biggest problem.

StupEd05

Wow, thanx. I see what you mean as when sometimes to avoid it on a cold start I will rev to about 2.5 or 3kish then let off the clutch and if I keep the revs about that high (by not shifting as early as usual) it doesnt seem to occur as often. If I put it in 3rd at around 2k rpms it would prolly run fine UNTIL I give it gas, underload is 90% of the time when it occurs. So as long as it isnt underload while on the that spot of the track its fine is what Im starting to think. So was the TPS the end all for you??? Cause it sounds like an identical problem to yours.

testarossa_td

Read my TPS long story.
In the end it was the TPS that caused my not willing to drive until I got it fixed problem. It simply would not get past 2k rpm. It was like a wall.
Previous to that I had "annoying" issues..rough idle(I too thought temperature related) several turns on the starter to get it to start, occassional flat spots.
After I had replaced the O2 sensor, and the AFM and the TPS and ran it for a while -several hours hard! and a week, I went back and put my original 164k AFM on and did not have any problems. On my original AFM I had popped the top and bent the arms so that they ran on fresh tracks however so it may have solved a contributing problem once the other parts were sorted out. In my research I looked at other functioning AFM's and saw that they all had the common tracks worn in the contact tracks...so I had to assume that, mine was probably ok and it was something else. I only went with the AFM because so many people had told me hey that happened on my car and.....but in my case there were contributing factors that were probably amplified by an older AFM with wear in the tracks. Once the other problems were sorted out it was within spec enough not to be a problem.
TPS and O2 being the big stinks.
These Items for your car are cheap enough(I saw several AFM's on ebay for less than $25) and unless you are enquistive and technik-ly minded I would just buy them and replace them and see what happens.
You need an O2 sensor-Done
Try another AFM-$25
Try another TPS-Cheap enough.
If that does not solve your problem....time to search vacuum and other issues.
Distributor...etc
All this is annoying but fun-to a degree and once you know what is happening and you know you fixed it. You feel that much more cool when you drive because you know exactly what is going on under that hood.

StupEd05

lol, I know exactly what feeling your talking about. I had a 3 month long diagnosis initiation last fall. Turned out to be a bad ground to the ref sensor so car wouldnt start at all. But in the process I replaced and learned how to replace just about everything else. And that being the first real problem with a car I have had to diagnos on my own, I learned a TON from it and feel 100x more confident in dealing with this car.

tomc_85.5_944

My idle problem didn't start UNTIL I replaced the TPS....Course I had to pull the manifold off to fix some hoses while I was in there, and cleaned out the ISV, so I am leaning toward the ISV. Got a used replacement for $25, but have not had the chance to jumper the test plug and take the ISV out of the equation when it is cold yet.