doug791

Okay so heres the deal. For a while now my car has had a little bit of a rough idle and the tranny was doing some ****ed up things and was also causing a bit of a vibration through the drive train. Well i had a used tranny and converter that were given to me that i attempted to swap out in my garage. All i got off was the drive shaft out of the car and the bolts that attach to the tail shaft. Got stuck when i tried to take out the converter bolts and just gave up, put it all back together and said its going to a mechanics to have this done. I decide im going to take it out for a final spin before it goes to the mechanic so i take it out for a couple hours its running pretty normal some problems but as good as ever. Well im driving home and get within a 2 min drive of my house and i hear this massive back fire and am like wtf. Then i hear it again, then the engine stumbles, and this continues all the way to my house of which i just barely get it home. Talking to a buddy about it he says his dad had the same thing happen and his coil just went out. I figure that could make sense so i grabbed a new coil. Car starts up fine even drive down the street and around the corner but then starts stumbling and backfiring.

So now im at a loss. Since the engine is running most of the cylinders must be okay, and since its backfiring i know its getting fuel which makes me think 3 different things.

Could either be A) timing....B) ignition related as something isnt getting a spark C) an intake valve isnt working.

I dont think its timing because the car wouldnt have run fine for 2 hours then took a crap. I dont think its a spark plug not firing because ive had that before and this doesnt feel like its just dropping a cylinder.

Which leaves me at possibly one cylinder just isnt getting any air? The other anomoly is when i went to test the new coil my tack had stopped working? Does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be. Also how can i tell if i have a sticking or stuck intake valve can i just pull off the valve cover and will it be visually obvious?

91Z28-350

Did you tilt the engine back or let the tranny hang unsupported? If so, you may have cracked the distributor cap trying to pull off the tranny?

Irocdriver89

i have the same problem with my gta with the rough idel and the vibrating drive line and even the tranny has a little play in it. I can help you with the idel change the o2 sensor the rest i have yet to figure out!!!!!!!!!

doug791

nah i didnt break the cap. I'm pretty certain now that its my distributor module because thats apparently what my tack runs off of and if you read to the end of that long post my tack just died when the problem started and that would explain the fact that the timing is completly ****ed.

Black6SpdTA

Don't know if I can help with your problem, seems you already figured it out but as far as the convertor bolts....

Got air tools? We used an impact to get those convertor bolts off, whole auto tranny came out within 1.5hrs. I love compressed air

kevin 2.8

hey doug hows it goin.
was expecting you to say somthin like "the tranny fell out" or "the driveshaft popped out and ripped through the floor" with your luck but ah well.

i would get a light and check the timing first. mase sure all the wires are seated and all the plugs are firing. i would check fuel pressure too. just easy to do. scan the codes just for the hell of it incase it threw somthin quick and you didnt see it.

does it do it in park in the driveway at a certian rpm? can you do it when holding the gas and the brake?

i once swapped in a bunch of junk sensord that i suspeced bad just to see the symptoms and would recognise them later. tps voltange stong all through the range?

distributer pickup coil as well as ignition coil?

keep us posted.

doug791

I have a very strong hope its the ignition module. As far as i understand the ignition module is what controls the tach, and mine just died when the problem happened. All of those are good tips for things to check if this doesnt work out tho and good thing is i can take all this junk back to crappy tire and just return it if its not the cause of the problem

kevin 2.8

heck you could probably put the old one in the new box and take it back

my towncars new alt caught fire from a bad harness. they wouldnt warranty my 4 day old melted alternator, and with a new alternator in hand they told me to "take your box home and come back tomorrow" i took the box home. didnt need to come back tomorrow.