Fixed My Rough Running Problem

[Bruzilla]

Since it's gotten colder, my 74 Road Runner has been having fits in the mornings. Ever since I got it, the engine runs fine when it's hot, but runs like crap when it's cold. I would start it and it would idle fine, then it would be fine at low RPM, but as I started to accelerate, it sounded like a backfire was coming through the carb and there was a good chance the engine would stall. And when I was coming off the gas at speed, it sounded like it was backfiring through the exhaust. Once the engine was hot, all this went away, but until then it ran like crap. I replaced ECU and coil, and was thinking it might be an issue with the carb.

I upgraded the headlights to relays this weekend, and as per the instructions I went to wire the relays to the alternator. When I did this I found there was major problems with the alternator wiring. The current out wire was almost completely gone! Only a couple of dark, brittle, strands were still connecting the wire to the alternator. The other two wires had broken in the past and been repaired by just twisting the ends together and not even putting tape on them, so they were all corroded.

Long story short, I replaced all the bad wiring and connections, and now the car is running much better. No more backfiring, no more stalling, cold or hot. I didn't think low flow from the alternator could effect the ignition that much, but I guess it can.

 

[RustyRatRod]

You been puttin so many Pittsburg sticker on, you slap forgot about the important things.

 

[Bruzilla]

Damn skippy! I haven't done much of anything to the engine since we'll be replacing it here in a couple of months. Damn glad I did those headlights or I wouldn't have known I had a voltage problem until I got stranded somewhere.

 

[Someotherguy]

aint nothin like a little more SPARK to help things out

 

[99ss]

You been puttin so many Pittsburg sticker on, you slap forgot about the important things.

LMAO!!!

Yea, low current has a way of effecting things. You should see what it does with these new modern cars that rely on it more than anything else in the car. You get all kinds of weird symptoms that make you think its totally something else wrong.


Tough loss to SanDeigo.. The Bolts are a horrible team as well. Did Pitts defense just get old all of a sudden? Whats the issue there?

 

[Bruzilla]

That's a fact! I would have sworn the problem was fuel or vacuum.

 

[99ss]

That's a fact! I would have sworn the problem was fuel or vacuum.

sounded like it or choke

 

[clemul]

Glad you found it...The wiring in my 67 Belvedere was in the same terrible shape... I replaced all of my wiring with the M&H reproduction wire harnesses available through Year One only....well worth the expense in my opinion.....Reliability goes way up and risk of fire/fire damage goes down...very happy with quality and M&H customer service is excellent.