tuned and ready to 'roc

["M. Hansen" <hansen@ionsys.com>]

Just finished a little spring cleaning and tuning on the 'roc.  I was
having engine problems on the highway over 120 kph (75 mph).  It would
sputter and buck intermittently and the deceleration was very rough.  Of
course I only noticed this an hour into a 5 hour round trip but that's
beside the point.  I had replaced cap, rotor, wires in the fall with
Bosch and I have a K&N filter so that eliminated those problems.  So I
replaced the fuel filter cuz I've never changed it since owning the car
(25,000 kms ago).  Felt better at full throttle and higher speeds but
symptoms remained and I still had a suspicion that it was electrical in
nature.  I poked around the engine bay for 5 minutes and AHA! found
these two light brownish wires hanging in mid-air looking quite out of
place.  Look down and there's a spade connector with no wires right at
the end of the intake manifold by the cold start injector.  2 wires meet
new spade terminal.  Plug wires and terminal onto end of cold start
valve area and voila! problem solved.  
        So if you experience symptoms like this, it may be as simple as
making
sure all the lamda control wires are in place and are properly
grounded.  Makes a big difference.
        After I was back to my previous level of performance, I decided
to
bring it up a small notch or two.  Set the mixture, timing and idle,
cleaned the K&N, and added a cold air scoop.  It runs much smoother now
and there is a noticeable difference on the highway.  There seems to be
more in reserve at 140-150 kmh.  Yeeesshh!  Sometimes the details make a
big difference.
        Another cheap fix I did was to replace the original, riveted
left ball
joint (285,000 kms) with a new one. (P/O replaced the right one)  The
shudder above 120 kph is gone, no more loud clunks when going over
bumps, and it doesn't pull to the left anymore.  WOW!  And they say a
dollar (or 20) doesn't go as far as it used to.
        The moral of the story is I spent maybe $50 CDN and my car feels
better
than it ever has!
May you all be blessed the same!

Mike Hansen
83 Scirocco GT
72 Datsun 240Z

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