Re: Emissions...The saga continues.

[Charles Slayman <Charles.Slayman@domain.elided>]

Fred,
	I'm wondering if you've ruptured your brake diaphragm.  That might 
explain the white smoke if the engine is sucking in brake fluid that has leaked 
past the master cylinder into the diaphragm.  Leaking brake fluid will cause the 
diaphragm to fail.  The brake light comes on if the fluid in the reservior is 
low (check it) or (I think) if there is an imbalance in the circuit pressure 
(this should be unrelated to your problem).  Can't explain why the water light 
would come on.
	Anyway, remove the brake vacuum line from the checkvalve on the 
manifold.  There should be a large hissing sound from the release of vacuum.  
Suck on the line (but don't ingest any fluid!  Elevate it from the diaphragm!)  
But your thumb over the hose and make sure the diaphragm holds vacuum.  If it 
does not, then it is leaking.  If it is leaking, then this is a HIDDEN VACUUM 
LEAK that will cause one or more cylinder to run lean!  Hmmmm......
	Plug the check valve and drive the car without the vacuum booster.  Be 
careful, you don't have power assist on the brakes.  Now see if the popping goes 
away under braking.
	I remember as a "wet behind the ears" junior in autoshop, we had a brand 
new Dodge Coronet from one of the high school teacher in for diagnosis.  Our 
autoshop instructor was a real genius.  But this car had everyone stumped, even 
the local dealer.  It had a slight miss at idle and nobody could track it down.  
The car ran OK, but it was bugging the teacher.  It was at the dealer several 
times and into autoshop class many more times.  Finally our instructor tracked 
it down to an internal vacuum leak in the brake booster!  From that day on, I 
was in awe of his troubleshooting skills.
	
Good Luck,
Charlie	
	
	
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 19:49:00 -0400
>To: alfa@domain.elided
>From: Fred Sacks <fredsacks@domain.elided>
>Subject: Emissions...The saga continues.
>
>At the last installment, I failed NJ dynamometer emissions testing 
>with high NOx, and very marginal HC and CO.  (The repost is below) 
>Coming home tonight, the next chapter began.
>
>Exiting Rt 295, the brake and water lights came on, and the car 
>started missing.  In order not to stall at lights, I had to keep the 
>engine at 2-3000rpm.  When accelerating, I left a cloud of smoke. 
>Fortunately, I only had about a mile to drive from the time this 
>started.
>
>When I pulled into the driveway, I shut the car down, opened the hood 
>and checked for tight connections, both in the fuel system and 
>electrical system.
>All appeared tight.  I am at 1/2 a tank of gas, so I doubt that gas 
>is the culprit.  The only other time something like this happened, 
>the attendant put regular gas in while I was giving directions to 
>someone.  (It is illegal to pump your own gas in NJ)
>
>Anayway, after no more than 5 minutes, I restarted the car, and it 
>idled at exactly 950 rpm...steady.  Took the car out for a ride, and 
>it revved freely, but had more popping on deceleration, and did seem 
>to have some very, very minorpopping on acceleration. (unless you 
>knew the car, you would think it ran great.)  But even under load, up 
>hill, the car ran well.
>
>I have to drive a distance tomorrow, so will rent a car.  (It still 
>has never left me stranded.)  But I have the weekend to work on the 
>car, and would like to have it ready for the NJAROC Fall Tour.
>
>Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>Fred SaCKS
>89 GRADUATE

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided