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SVT not running right heeeeelp please

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OutlawdSVT

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 24, 2000
Messages
133
Location
Gardner KS
Alright I have a good one for you guys. A friend of mine (me) has a 2000 SVT Tour and has the following issue:

The car shimmies really bad when accelerating from any gear but really noticeable at 3rd - 5th gear from 2800 RPM on up. When it starts to shimmy I can let off on the gas and the problem will go away, but as soon as I slowly accelerate the shaking will come back. It just seems that I (I mean he) has a miss of some sort, but definitely motor related.

I know for a fact that it isn’t wheels, tires, or spark plugs because I just changed them because of snow on the ground. The problem was there before and after these things were changed. This week I noticed that the issue was worse and that the car had a different sound to it and at the same time I had a check engine light and it said I had a misfire on cylinder 3. I pulled the spark plug wire as it was running and I did have spark from the coil pack, but the car didn’t change its pitch which I believe is not right. I inspected the engine bay more and I noticed that one of the injector wires at the harness was detached from the plug. I fixed that connection and instantly I could tell a difference in the way the car ran, but I still had the shaking as stated above. I have no CEL codes and I looked at all the spark plug wires and they seemed to be good. I looked and pulled on all my injector wires and they seemed fine.

When the first snow fell (which was preceeded by freezing rain) it took a while to get my (his) car started, it would just go click…..click, but eventually it did start w/ out moving any cables or anything. I then checked all my battery connections and they seemed fine. I checked my alternator and it puts out what it needs to. I’m still using my factory battery from 2000 when I bought the car. I have not done a load test w/ that yet.

Sorry if this is long, I tried to shorten it the best way I could.
Thanks for taking time to read this and hopefully someone has experienced the same thing so I can get this resolved for my friend wink wink.

Thanks
 
It's time to inspect the spark plug and check compression for the cylinder that had the disconnected injector plug. With a little luck you have a fouled plug. Do this first and see what happens.
 
I just pulled out the spark plugs this week and they all good fine. I put brand new plugs in Wed and I still have the same problem. I do think a compression test is in order, but something tells me that it will come out fine. It's good to check the compression anyways.
 
OutlawdSVT said:
I just pulled out the spark plugs this week and they all good fine. I put brand new plugs in Wed and I still have the same problem. ...
Click to expand...
Did you gap them 0.054 inch? On this site, pregapped = wrong gap.
 
Don't forget to check the wires. I would try a set of "known good" wires and put them on. It never hurts to check, and I didn't want to ASSume you already tried.

Good luck,
-Aaron
 
The problem was w/ a set of plugs that I have been running for two years. I changed the plugs this week just trying to eliminate something. I did gap them @ 0.054.

I do not have a spare set of wires, but not that it means anything, the wires are 2 years old w/ roughly 25K miles on them. I looked at the wires and they look fine inside and out.

Thanks for the feedback
 
OutlawdSVT said:
I do not have a spare set of wires, but not that it means anything, the wires are 2 years old w/ roughly 25K miles on them.
Click to expand...


I have had brand new wires crap out on my sooner than that. It is defenitly a good thing to change. What wires do you currently have on!?!? I have had the worst luck with Ford Racing 9mm wires!


Reebs
 
Could you have a severe vacuum leak thats causing the shaking. check all your vaccum hoses and fittings and make sure that they are all plugged in correctly. Did you remove the UIM to get to the plugs. If so look at the back of the UIM and make sure those vacuum hoses are connected.
 
I do have the Ford 9mm wires and I'm aware of the on going problems w/ those, but I thought they would go bad w/ them rubbing against the UIM. I modified my stock plug wire holders so the bigger wires would fit. If it is the park plug wires I would have thought I would have been able to tell from looking at the plugs.

As far as vacuum I already checked them and they all look fine as well. I have never had to take off my UIM to change plugs.

I did find my stock wires that I took off my car after 43,000 miles and so that means that I have had my current ones for 25,000 miles. I will drive the car today and that will let you know what I find.
Thanks for your help.
 
Spark can do strange things. I installed a 3L for a CEGer and left the plugs in. Only had 10k on it so I thought he could just replace them down the road. Car had a vibration that felt like a motor mount. Replaced the plugs with APP764's and it was good to go. Your issue could be a wire issue.
 
I drove it today w/ my factory wires and the problem is still there, NO different. My vote is going to be the injector wires or some injector cleaner would be in order. I will hopefully get a chance to work on it tonight.
 
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