Stumblin' Spider

["Jon Inge" <joninge@domain.elided>]

Mark reports:

<<I have an '85 Spider that I just put back together after a complete paint
spray. I've cleaned the ground connections and hooked every thing back up.
The car starts immediately with no problems but it idles like it wants to
stall and if you hit the gas quickly (as opposed to accelerate slowly) the
car nearly stalls before it starts to catch. Once it is up in the rpms it
runs fine. >>

Mark, sounds very similar to the way my '86 behaved recently, except that it
would start and idle just fine, then drop back to 2-3 cylinders as load was
put on the engine.  Given enough coaxing and patience to build up the revs
it would eventually fire on all 4 and zoom off.  Until one day it wouldn't,
and died at a traffic light as rain started to fall...

Turned out to be a bad coil, compounded by corrosion on the end of the
ignition wire that plugs into the coil.  New coil, wire trimmed back and
re-crimped, and all is fine.  Better than before, actually, so I'd guess the
coil was sinking slowly in the West for a while.

Of course, YMMV, but it might be worth checking.

Good luck!

Jon
Jon Inge
'86 Spider Veloce
'91 164
Edmonds, WA

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