'92 stock 2.3l with some sudden engine trouble, please help!

KoolAid4Cyl.

New Member
Apr 27, 2004
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Madison, Va
Its been a while since I perused stangnet but I just had some weird engine trouble and Im at a loss at to what the cause is.

So heres the deal, while driving home one night after I was driving fast and goofing around on some backroads, then a few donuts in a parking lot, I lost my clutch, or i should say that my clutch pedal went slack, and i couldnt pull it back which made me think that i just broke something in the linkage, as it is a cable clutch and not hydrualic, but i just shifted using rpms the rest of the way home and drove my car up on to my pit, and it was the bolt that connects the cable to the throwout bearing fork, so i replaced that and took it the next day to a friends house about 28 miles away. This time thats all i did, just drive it to my friends house and then came back in the morning, but about half way home, going about 45-50 in 4th gear, i started to lose power, I would equate it to a hesitation in the transmission if I had an automatic, thats what it felt like initially, so I put the car in nuetral and reved the engine a few times and it was sounding rough, like it was going to putter and die so i costed off the road and the engine cut off on me. I tried to start it again but it was running too rough to stay on so it cut off, i poped the hood and i think i saw that there was smoke comming up from the right side of the enigne, not a lot, as soon as i noticed it it dissapated. I started it again and went outside to the engine and reved the engine to see if i could see/hear what was going on, i couldnt notice anyting and after reving the engine for a while it seemed to clear up, and then it ran smooth and I drove it the rest of the way home. when i couldnt find anything mechanically wrong, I am thinking maybe a computer malfunction or something like that. I cleanded the airfilter because it needed that bad, and tried to take it out a day later but a mile down the road it started to mess up the same way, i put it in neutral and reved the engine a coulpe of times and it cleared up but i turned around and brought it home, I have an "actron OBD II AutoScanner" but it only works on 1994 and up cars/trucks.

Does anyone know a possible solution to my problem? and is there even a scanner hook up to test the computer on my car?


Thanks
-BGH
 
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The OBD-I connector is a two piece that is by your master cylinder. It's about 2 inches wide and also has a single seperate one wire connector. It's a bit hidden as it has a dummy connector capping it off and may be attached to the fender well.

I use a MT-2500 scanner from Snap-On to read the old non OBD-II codes and such. Most garages still have the old testing equipment. Also a Ford SuperStar I or II tester will work. I know there's also a way to pull codes using a multimeter but it's a nuisance.

Try doing a compression test. I once had an old chevy that would run great cold, but after a good 15 minutes, it would run like crap. I finally traced it to a bad head that was expanding when hot, then leaking compression. I also saw a wisp of smoke come from it too.

Hope that somewhat helps. I would definately try to see if there's any codes first.

Jeff
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