TMS Bill & HankL
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,313
Likes: 8
RE: TMS Bill & HankL
Gently cleaning the IAC is a good idea
but if you remove it damage is easy.
Some other ideas.
A damaged coil to distributor ignition wire would cause hard starting. Check resistance of wire with ohm meter and look for blue arcing in dark...be careful!
Low fuel pressure from the fuel pump could cause hard starting. This could be worse if one or more fuel injectors are 'dribbling' fuel when they should be off. This can 'flood' the cylinders with gasoline just like an old carb could, and wets the sparkplugs making them hard to spark. Fuel injector cleaner, like official Mopar, or Chevron Concentrate Plus, could help this by cleaning fuel injectors, and also surprisingly cleaning the submerged filter in your gas tank attached to the fuel pump. Check for low fuel pressure is to attach a pressure gauge at the Schaeder valve at the rear of the fuel rail.
A worn out rotor, or carbon tracks on the old distributor cap, could cause hard starting.
To really troubleshoot ignition problems today
you need a meter like this one being sold on eBay:
http://tinyurl.com/2llgkk
or you need to find a shop with one of the very expensive SnapOn Vantage meters with the ignition high voltage accessory....such a shop will also have smart owners and techs to help find your problem.
Start with the simple cheap stuff
but if you remove it damage is easy.
Some other ideas.
A damaged coil to distributor ignition wire would cause hard starting. Check resistance of wire with ohm meter and look for blue arcing in dark...be careful!
Low fuel pressure from the fuel pump could cause hard starting. This could be worse if one or more fuel injectors are 'dribbling' fuel when they should be off. This can 'flood' the cylinders with gasoline just like an old carb could, and wets the sparkplugs making them hard to spark. Fuel injector cleaner, like official Mopar, or Chevron Concentrate Plus, could help this by cleaning fuel injectors, and also surprisingly cleaning the submerged filter in your gas tank attached to the fuel pump. Check for low fuel pressure is to attach a pressure gauge at the Schaeder valve at the rear of the fuel rail.
A worn out rotor, or carbon tracks on the old distributor cap, could cause hard starting.
To really troubleshoot ignition problems today
you need a meter like this one being sold on eBay:
http://tinyurl.com/2llgkk
or you need to find a shop with one of the very expensive SnapOn Vantage meters with the ignition high voltage accessory....such a shop will also have smart owners and techs to help find your problem.
Start with the simple cheap stuff
Thread Starter
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All Star
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 946
Likes: 1
From: EL CAMPO, TX
RE: TMS Bill & HankL
Thanks Hank I'll give it a try. It just started doing this but today it started right up with no problems. I'm still going to follow through with cleaning everything and hell I might just replace the IAC valve, fuel pump assembly, etc. just so I'll have a starting point as to the maintenence of the fuel injection system.
