Starting issues

[stangfanatic]

Well, today I actually took my stang out for a drive since weather had not been permitting lately. Anyway, I cranked it up, sat there ant let it run, but as soon as I let the clutch out all of the way, the engine died. The tranny was not in gear, so I tried again, and a second time I released the clutch and the car died again. I put the stick in a couple of gears and cranked it again, but this time it continued to run with the clutch out. I took it for a drive and a few of times the car sputtered like it wanted to cut off, I pushed the clutch in and it caught right back up except once where it died all together.
My first though was the neutral safety switch, would this cause my symptoms? Has anyone encountered anything like this before?

Thanks all

 

[stangfanatic]

Does anyone have any ideas, I was under the assumption after looking at the wiring diagrams that the saftey switch only prevented the ignition from working and would not make the car shut off if it were bad.

 

[Repostyle]

Does it seem like it's dying because it's under load even though it's in neutral? Could be a trans problem. Or, might just be time to change the fuel filter and it's not getting a good enough flow of fuel. That would allow it to run okay while it's free but as soon as you let the clutch out the internals in the trans start to spin and it just doesn't have enough fuel to take that load. The NSS just cuts the starter when it's not in neutral, it wouldn't effect an already running car.

 

[stangfanatic]

That was my perception also, strange thing is, I cannot get it to repeat consistently, this problem is very sporadic. For instance, I ran it yesterday and it never cut out on me once. And to answer your question, no the car is not in gear, it does not attempt to move at all when the clutch is released in neutral. Maybe I just need to go through the car and change all the filters (havent done it since I bought it last summer).

 

[91Stang2k]

Are you able to perform the KOEO self test on the computer? See if any codes come back.

 

[stangfanatic]

I'll do that tonight... I did it a couple weeks ago since the CEL stays on all the time, it was one for ECT out of range, vapor canister solenoid out of range, EGR out of range, but I will nail them down tonight.

 

[stangfanatic]

Just ran the codes, they are 24 Air Temp OOR, 31 EGR OOR, and 85 Canister Purge circuit. I am ignoring the 85 cause my car doesnt have a vapor canister anymore, Ive searched a little and would like to know if I could get this code to clear somehow.

 

[stangfanatic]

Ok, after looking at is some more, the EGR vaccum line is not connected, but the sensor plug is. I saw on veryuseful.com an EGR eliminator, should I do this and just block off the EGR plate? I did notice someone in another thread saying that their car had a code 85 and it was running rich, do those two symptoms go together?
As far as the Air Temp, what the heck is that? Some of the troubleshooting steps I found were related to the IAC, can anyone fill in the blanks on this one?

Thanks All