boxerlover

Hi guys. I've looked but can't find any info on this. Did the Loyale wagons ever come with airbags? If so, when did it start? Thanks!

Well guys, the problem is solved! I yanked the alternator out and had it tested. Lo and behold, it was bad, pushing out too many volts as expected. Slapped a NAPA rebuilt in, and (drum roll....) problem solved! Steady as a rock now at between 13.4 and 13.9 volts, and NO MORE TACH issues. I would like to thank each and every one of you who responded to help. It was very much appreciated. The collective wisdom of this board certainly put my local mechanic to shame. Thank you all again for taking the time to help and answer what may have been some pretty basic questions. USMB rules!

Naru, This may be a dumb question, but where would I take the AC reading at? Not sure what I'm looking for here.

The quest continues. I ran the car tonight with a digital voltage meter in the cigarette lighter and my VOM hooked to the coil hot side. I went for a drive and the voltage on both went to a high of about 16.1 volts. That seems a little high to me, but nonetheless, both meters correlated. Turned on the fan and the tach started its dance, but no indication of voltage problems on either meter. I went home and hooked up an inductive tach to the plug wire, and ran it up to 2500 rpm. Inductive tach steady as a rock, and no miss felt. Turned on the fan at which point the instrument tach started its dance, but the inductive tach remained rock solid. Again, no miss felt. Forever whatever reason, I can't get the miss to repeat. Maybe the problem is just a bad tach??? I'm assuming the tach in the instrument panel is nothing more than a glorified voltmeter. Can I hook my VOM to the coil negative terminal and read the signal? What is the output? That is the question for the evening. Then I can correlate it to the tach signal and find out if the tach in the car is bad. I really hate it when I can't get to the bottom of a mechanical or electrical problem.

Guys, I really do appreciate the help. You are right GD. The stock one is numbered 22100 AA 121. I didn't realize there were different disty's depending on the model. Naru- I think the alternator is OK. No charging issues or wild voltage swings. Runs about 12.9 volts at idle. I haven't checked it digitally at speed, although the stock volt meter shows about 15 volts on the road. Not sure how accurate that gauge is though. I also have ruled out timing belts. They are brand new and tight. Here's another piece to the puzzle. In addition to the fan, it will very occasionally start jumping around if the turn signals are on. Headlights don't seem to have an effect on it. Also, it doesn't jump around at idle at all. It's rock solid there. It needs to be running around 2K or above for this to happen. It also doesn't do it when the engine is cold. The engine has to be up to full operating temp. This is why I originally replaced the coil. I thought it was failing at temp. I'm not sure how to isolate this without dropping the coin for a new disty, which I already did but will now return since they gave me the wrong one. Prior to buying the new unit, I felt for some slop in the disty while it was mounted in the car and thought I felt a little. However, when I took it out and checked it, my precision calibrated fingers say there is no more than .0010-.0015 clearance. If it is a harness connection, it's gonna be a *************** to track down. My wiring diagrams (courtesy of Chilton's) suck. GD- given that the fit in the disty seems OK, would you still suspect it might be the problem? Naru- if I want to check voltage, am I checking at the positive coil terminal? I'm still confused by the black wire being hooked to the positive coil terminal. Chiltons is no help in this regard. I'm at a loss guys. My daughter wants her car back and she's getting tough to live with. Any further thoughts? I'm desperate!

One other question... On the coil the yellow wires are connected to the neg terminal. The black wires are connected to the pos terminal. Is that right? Seems odd to me. Thanks.

OK. Now I'm really confused. I got a rebuilt disty that is supposed to be for an '86 carbed model, and noticed right away something was wrong. It's missing a flange for a holddown bolt. Also, gear/shaft arrangement is wrong. It appears that even the gear to flange height is wrong. Pics attached. Original on the left, rebuilt on the right. I've got a Mitchells manual for 1986, and the Hitachi they show looks like the rebuilt unit. To make matters worse, after pulling the original one, I can't feel any freeplay in the shaft/bearing fit. Seems fine to me. So, a couple of question. 1) What is the original distributor? and 2) Where should I go from here?

Thanks GD. I hadn't thought of the multiple firings causing the issue. I will yank it out on Sunday and have a look. I'll lay odds you are right. It's exactly what the miss feels like. I'd love to have it rebuilt, but it's a daily driver so it looks like I'll have to pop for a rebuilt or used unit. Are the ND and Hitachi disty's interchangeable within the carbed engines?

OK. I'm stumped. 86 GL 4WD wagon. Carbed. New rebuild. The tach has started to be erratic and vary 1000 rpm or so while driving. It seems like it does it when it is up to operating temp. Haven't noticed it when cold. I searched the archives and conventional wisdom says coil or disty. I suspected and replaced the coil. A marginal improvement. Or so it seems. But here's the weird thing. When messing with it today. It gets worse with the heater fan speed. The faster the fan runs, the worse the tach jumping around gets. I tried it going up a hill today, and it seems to be missing a bit while the tach is doing the dance, but I don't notice it on level roads. I'm stumped. What could the fan switch have to do with the tach? Any help would be hugely appreciated. BTW- No tach bounce at idle.

GD, you are right. My bad. I left out a key point. I first removed the solenoid and pulled out the actual plunger/needle and spring, and then screwed the body back in. Yanking the wire was an afterthought. That's an important clarification. It appears that the solenoid was functioning erratically. Ocassionally it would idle down to 700 rpm, but 99% of the time it would just die at curb idle. It seems that when the solenoid was working, I got curb idle. When it wasn't, I had to raise the rpm to get off the idle circuit as you suggest to keep it running. Thanks for keeping me honest. The proof of my theory will be when the new solenoid arrives in a week, but I'm confident it will take care of it.

Well, I finally figured it out. The choke was pulling off and opening fine, so no problem there. It turns out it was anti-dieseling solenoid. It was defective and closing off the idle fuel circuit. Pulled the wire, and instant idle. I've got a new one on order just to be safe. I don't much care for dieseling in gas motors. So now the old 'ru runs like a million bucks complete with a CCR rebuilt motor. The old motor had a weak cylinder and leaked oil like the Exxon Valdez. No more! I'm a happy camper! It's awesome to have an oil tight motor (a rarity in these older cars). Just a hint for others who may not be familiar with Mitchell Shop Manuals. Go to your library and see if they have them. These are the manuals that repair shops use and they are awesome. The detail is fantastic. Thanks to this board for all the help:headbang:

This thing is driving me nuts! Here's the situation- Had poor starting problems when cold. With a little troubleshooting and some advice from general disorder (Thanks GD) the 86 wagon now lights off instantly when cold. Turns out the choke was not set right. Trouble is, now it won't idle consistently now when it's at operating temsp. It will run fine going down the road, but the first stop you make the engine will not idle and dies. And so it goes until the engine is cold again. Most of the time the engine idles erratically under about 1200 rpm. It acts like a vacuum leak, although the engine pulls about 20 inches at idle (when you can get it to idle). I'm at my wits end. There don't appear to be any vacuum hose problems- at least visually. I don't know what to do next. I don't want to drop on a rebuilt carb, and have the same problem. It could be a bad sensor. One other oddity- I pulled off the distributor vacuum line to check vacuum and there wasn't any! So, how do I tell if this is a vacuum, carb, or sensor problem. I don't really want to mess with a Weber and the hassles of conversion if at all possible, even though I realize that's probably the best long term solution. I just want the stock stuff to work!

Success! It fires right up now when cold. Now if I could just get it to idle hot...

Thanks Pheonix. Yeah, I'm looking for the low idle mix screw. I wanted to make sure I had the right one before tweaking with it. I'll go out and give it a try. Boxluv

Thanks General Disorder. I'm going to do battle with it right now. I'm assuming that the choke should have 12V to it whenever the engine is running. Coreect?