Engine idle not working

[Fordication]

There is a lot of good info above. Follow through with the diagnoses give. If not you will be going in circles. I'm going to go above and beyond here. You drove a car home x miles that sat for x years.
What could go wrong!

Compression test, leak down test and vacuum reading if it runs long enough. Find out the condition of the engine. Fuel,Air,compression,spark. If one is bad it will run bad if at all. Suck Bang Blow.


Vacuum actuators are rotted and erupt. Vacuum advance actuator erupts. Remove all vacuum lines and plug.


Condition of exhaust. Probably not but check!

If that's hard what else would be hard and fail? Driving a car that sat for years. Intake gasket? It might start and run a bit but it won't have good power.

That could be. Static time it. Line up marks and check number 1 plug rotor how close it is to the right location. That is if you didn't move from there when is was running. Give us a picture.

What does that tell you. A few things. 1 It went bad, right! 2 What might have happened in that event. The brown wire ing 2 gives full voltage to the coil when starting. I would say that's not the problem. The blue wire is the run wire. That feed power to the ing all the time when key is in the run position. That's why I say check connections 22 and 23. Might be burnt. Under column plug? Be sure to check grounds. The vibrations of the car running loosen the connections?
I'm taking it, that you ruled out the ballast resistor?


May it's climate change?

Replaced Ballast resistor, rebuilt carb, replaced fuel pump and filter, replaced all vacuum lines that were brittle or cracked. Replaced ICM and coil, Spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor are new. New gas tank, flushed lines. Tomorrow I will pull all of the plugs, clean and regap them.

 

[Challenger RTA]

There are some keen eyes and ears here. Post a video on you tube. Then post a link here. That would give a better explanation of what's going on. Someone here might just pick up on it.

 

[Challenger RTA]

I will pull all of the plugs

look to see if their gas or oil fowled.

 

[Challenger RTA]

To bypass all the wiring for the ignition hot wire it. Run power from the battery to the blue resistor wire on the ign 1 side not on the ICM side.
You can start the car with ing sw but it will keep running until you turn the key off and remove the jumper wire. BOTH! If it stays running and runs good,it's the wire or connectors. Low voltage through a bad connection or connections.

 

[Fordication]

Ok so here is what I did. Pulled all of the plugs and inspected them. For the most part they looked like this photo. I cleaned them then verified gap to .35. Then I tried that little wire from the battery to the #1 position on the resistor and the car still ran like crap. So here are a few photos. One of the photos shows a vacuum line plugged on the vacuum ? Modulator?. The other is my trunk lid, any idea how to make that bar go back to where its supposed too? I tried to take a video but somehow it took a photo.

 

[Challenger RTA]

battery to the #1 position on the resisto

That would eliminate the cars wiring, with the exception of the wires to the distributor, coil and ICM. And the grounds. The battery and alternator is good right! You could run a wire to ground bolts of the ICM and Voltage regulator then to the motor and or to the battery, there is a motor ground and a chassis ground in front of the Battery. Clean the mounting bolts on the alternator. this is a process of elimination. check the reluctor and the pick up in the distributor for rust or debris on it. It wouldn't hurt to check the gap it's probably ok never touched! while your in there check for play. I would say once you go through this, it will eliminate the electrical wiring.

 

[Fordication]

I do not know how to upload a short video.

 

[Challenger RTA]

You figured the video out. It's there.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Pulled all of the plugs and inspected them.

I would say the plugs are good. It looks like there were on a long good run. Might be a bit hot or lean. But then I had plugs that look good but they were cracked.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Not that this is your problem. Yet, If there is low voltage from the system I will not run good, I'm putting it here so you have it. At the battery the voltage should read 12.3 -12.5 v give or take. When charging it should be 14 v. Depending on the load.



This is for stock Mopar charging system.

1:With the key in the off position should have on the alternator output battery voltage.

2:The field wires should both read zero we should have no voltage.

3: If there is voltage at the field wires with the key off, there is a wiring problem.

4: If no voltage at the alternator output stud with the key off then we likely have either a dead battery or we have a wiring problem or blown fusible link.

5: With the key in the on position. there will be voltage at the alternator output, it's going to be lower than what it was with the key off, because the entire vehicle is energized. The voltage drop is going to be more you can still see it go from
12 and a half down to 11.7. Still going to have near battery voltage.

6: What's important. With the key on. The field wires should have voltage. It won't be full battery voltage but it's has power coming to the alternator and it will be a lot less on one side and one side is high. That's the inlet so that's power going into the field winding.
The other one, the one that's low is the output from the field winding.
The output from the field winding is what goes back to the voltage regulator.
The voltage regulator on this is simply a switch ( Remember it needs a good ground to function.) all it's going to do is connect this field terminal here to ground and when it connects it to ground electricity then flows through the field winding energizing it and causing the alternator to charge.

7: Run test: This is for stock Mopar charging system.
Before doing the run test you're going to want to connect directly to the field output terminal on the alternator with some sort of a jumper wire. You can remove the existing field wire if it helps you to get to it. Use a jumper wire that comes back to the battery and it's not connected to anything right now. Have the voltage meter connected to the battery. Just checking battery voltage 12.3 volts there abouts. By touching the jumper wire to the negative terminal.
Just grounding it you can hear the engine load up because it's pulling a load and the voltage runs up to 14. That tells you that when the field in the alternator is energized it's charging. The alternator is good. Now you know that it's not an alternator problem at this point. If it's not charging you have a no charge scenario but this passes then you know it's the voltage regulator or some wire to it. It's most likely the voltage regulator and that's all it takes to diagnose the charging system on one of these
Here again If the any ground is bad or loose. it won't charge correctly or reliability. They become phantom grounds that just keep haunting you! That being the Voltage regulator ground, chassis ground, engine ground, Bolts, bolt holes, nuts and mounting brackets. 99% of the time there overlooked. The whole car is a ground.

 

[Xcudame]

Since it will run for a little bit, can you get a timing light on it? Sounds like it jumped a tooth or two on the camshaft gear to me. That tell tell hard to start.

 

[Fordication]

Since it will run for a little bit, can you get a timing light on it? Sounds like it jumped a tooth or two on the camshaft gear to me. That tell tell hard to start.

Yes I did yesterday and shockingly enough the timing was spot on and the line was on mark for about 4 minutes until it warmed up and shut off. Idle was horrible and the sputtering was still there.

 

[Challenger RTA]

There are some keen eyes and ears here. Post a video on you tube. Then post a link here. That would give a better explanation of what's going on. Someone here might just pick up on it.

I'm sure there are others watching. They too will chime in.

Since it will run for a little bit, can you get a timing light on it? Sounds like it jumped a tooth or two on the camshaft gear to me. That tell tell hard to start.

I tend to agree with that. It's valve train related. Lifters collapsed , pushrods, rockers arms or lose shaft? Or the timing chain jumped.

I would say once you go through this, it will eliminate the electrical wiring.

When you get through the electrical check. Keep in mind anything can happen. Then you know what it is not. There are others here that know it too. Then it's air, fuel, vac or mechanical.

 

[Challenger RTA]

4 minutes until it warmed up and shut off.

Choke working correctly?

 

[Fordication]

I'm sure there are others watching. They too will chime in.


I tend to agree with that. It's valve train related. Lifters collapsed , pushrods, rockers arms or lose shaft? Or the timing chain jumped.

When you get through the electrical check. Keep in mind anything can happen. Then you know what it is not. There are others here that know it too. Then it's air fuel or mechanical.

Do not forget, I drove it from Wisconsin to Houston over a 2 day period. It was a low idle when I got it but it ran flawlessly for 2 days. I drove it almost to St Louis the 1st day the parked it at a hotel and got up early the next day. Started right up. Several times I did gas breaks and stopped to get food. Even stopped at a few auto parts stores to do some maintenance. Changed the oil and balanced and rotated the tires even, at Walmart. Got home at 3 in the morning with no problems and shut the car off. When I woke up I started the car and that's when this journey began. For no reason.

 

[Fordication]

Choke working correctly?

Yes

Choke working correctly?

Yes, about 4 minutes warmup and it shuts off and that's when it dies.

 

[Fordication]

That would eliminate the cars wiring, with the exception of the wires to the distributor, coil and ICM. And the grounds. The battery and alternator is good right! You could run a wire to ground bolts of the ICM and Voltage regulator then to the motor and or to the battery, there is a motor ground and a chassis ground in front of the Battery. Clean the mounting bolts on the alternator. this is a process of elimination. check the reluctor and the pick up in the distributor for rust or debris on it. It wouldn't hurt to check the gap it's probably ok never touched! while your in there check for play. I would say once you go through this, it will eliminate the electrical wiring.

I actually took some sandpaper and cleaned the reluctor and pickup coil. Then blew it all out to make sure no debris. The cap and rotor are new and I did note that the spark is on the tip of the rotor and not on the center.

 

[Fordication]

Had to ask for help from these guys, my wife was tired of me asking.

 

[Challenger RTA]

Is there an electric choke on that? The factory manual would show how to trouble shoot it. Not sure how to do that. I would have to check. Other than in a x period of time it should open.

 

[HPP]

I have only glanced through all the pages. But here's a thought...the car was purchased in Wisconsin and driven to Texas over a two-day period without these issues. After arriving at its new home, the issues popped up. I suspect the long drive and the constant heat soaking of the engine bay during this trip may have compromised a vacuum line somewhere in the engine bay and the constant poking around with fuel and ignition work may have made it worse. There are several vacuum lines that could cause an idle issue, all are easy to make contact with when working on the engine.

Let's not forget that the power brake booster could also be a contributor and could cause the largest possible vacuum leak of all. Sustained heat over a couple of days combined with the constant use could have cracked the diaphragm in the booster. In the process of checking ignition and fuel, I would have recommended you also perform a methodical vacuum line removal and isolation to verify there are no issues with any of these lines.

If it's in the shop, let's see what they come back with.