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Random Bucking/hesitations

AliasJerk

Addicted CEG'er
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
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Bill and I spent the day yesterday replacing the timing belt in my contour, after a bucket full of swearing and a lot of trial and error, we got the belt perfectly timed by about midnight. Out for a drive, babied the car down the road, then we got to 3rd gear and it started to buck horribly, in a pattern, no power at all. Skipped third went to 4th, was all fine and dandy again. We figured time for plugs and wires, so we got motorcraft plugs and duralast wires (yeah I know, but it was all that was avaliable at the time), swapped it out, everything ran even better, until the motor was warmed up, then surely enough nasty bucking under load, but now it doesnt just do it in 3rd. I can get it in 2nd and 3rd, and even occasionally in 1st (rarely though), Bill's dad seems to believe its time for a new coil pack... any suggestions? The timing belt is running beautifully right down the middle, perfectly in time, I have no CELs, and new Plugs and wires.
 
check for vacuum leaks and test the coilpack. In my experiance the zetec coilpack rarely goes bad.
 
check for vacuum leaks and test the coilpack. In my experiance the zetec coilpack rarely goes bad.

my old one did, twice. the coil pack that is. Both of the ones that failed were OEM Motorcraft.
 
Out for a drive said:
Check that the TV cable is adjusted correctly. That will sometimes cause what you are describing. Also look at the fluid level. If it is low that can contribute to it as well. The coil pack can be tested with a multimeter, follow the procedures written in your Chilton's manual. If you have high milage on it, it wouldn't hurt to change just because.
 
It's the throttle valve/position cable used for the transmission, kind of like a kickdown but helps program gear selection.
 
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IIRC our cars dont have that. the PCM uses the TPS to figure that out.

Thats what I thought...

Anyways, a friend of mine suggested that I try resetting the computer, I hadnt done it for a while so I decided to see what it might do for me.

I got one hesitation and not another one yet. Will keep everybody posted though.
 
Nope I still have hesitation problems, its just getting less and less common.... My Valve cover gasket is leaking a little bit, do you think that might have anything to do with it?
 
it might. if its leaking into the SP holes then yes. if its ONLY leaking to the outside then no. the PCM may be trying to relearn everything.
 
it might. if its leaking into the SP holes then yes. if its ONLY leaking to the outside then no. the PCM may be trying to relearn everything.

Good/bad news, on my drive home tonight doing 70 the car started to buck with the cruise on, I never had bucking in 5th gear before. Then my Check engine light poped on, so I am going to autozone to have the code read tomorrow, wish me luck.

If its a cam timing code, im just going to take it to a mechanic.
 
Did you retime the cam sprockets? They're taper/ taper, no key and they do move.

Both intake and exhaust were outta time on mine.

Coilpacks certainly go bad. Fire it up in the dark and spray water on it.
 
Did you retime the cam sprockets? They're taper/ taper, no key and they do move.

Both intake and exhaust were outta time on mine.

Coilpacks certainly go bad. Fire it up in the dark and spray water on it.

The cam sprockets are WICKED tight, I dont think they came loose on me, had that problem once, we got the engine all buttoned up, went to start it, and it jumped timing before even firing up. Used a huge breaker bar to tighten down that sucker.
 
To check time at the cams the valve cover has to come off, and a flat tool devised to measure them. I used some flat steel pieces. The flat steel is inserted _under_ the cutout rear ends of the cams and the top of the head. Has to be perfectly snug. Pictures include a tool I made up to hold the sprockets for loosening. The two pins hold the sprocket and there's a hole between them to get at the fastener. That's the only way to loosen the fasteners.

There's also a spring and tie down bolt that needs to be added when first changing out the belt and/ or idlers. 2nd picture- spring and shiny bolt.

Third pic - the rear of the cams. The pic is poor but the ends have half the round machined away. And I'm getting things roughly in place. The cams are also positioned upside down, I think, from where they need to be to set the time. The valve springs may tend to spin the cam outta position too. The flat stock goes between those cam flats and the top of the head.

When the cams are in their proper position the belt can be installed, and it does take some time. Once everything is installed to one's satisfaction roll the engine over in the direction of rotation two revolutions by hand. And check the cam timing again, at the rear of the head.
 

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Thanks Rager, but I just found out as of this morning what is wrong...

Last night the car threw a CEL while it was bucking, Normally I would get pissed at a CEL, but this was the one time I was excited... Took the car to autozone to find out my code is P1381, Cam timing excessive...

Oh joy, another timing belt job.

I give up, goes to the shop shortly.
 
Hey, soon you'll be running down the road a big s&^% eatin' grin on your face.
 
well, I got a call from the shop today.

The reason it was so difficlt for the timing to be right, was because the VCT sensor was effed up, the mechanic informed me that through his source that part costs $380 (or somewhere in that neighborhood), plus retiming the engine (labor), grand total $714.

Well thats over double what I expected it to be.

Awesome, nothing like the first problem of this car ends up costing me a butt load... I really need to find a job
 
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