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'89 GT: Now lurching/jerking up hills

3K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Tuneman1984 
#1 ·
This one just started a few days ago...

I was driving up a slight incline in 2nd gear when the car felt like it skipped a beat. It lost power for a fraction of a second and felt like it lurched forward. It's now done this at least a half-dozen time over the last few days, with varying degrees of intensity and in different gears, but always on some sort of incline.

Here's what I do know. In the last 4 months I've done the air filter, fuel filter, PCV valve, spark plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. I've done some googling/Haynes reading and signs suggest it might be the fuel pump. Lurching also suggested it might be a tranny issue, but it's not doing it in any particular gear or with any regularity. So, fuel pump?

This is just what I need what with no money, no proper place to do car repairs, and a job offer 1200 km away just around the corner...

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
#3 ·
I had the connections to the fuel pump checked and they were fine. Also the fuel lines looked okay to the tech that inspected my car (used to work at a dealership). However, I've come up with another theory.

I noticed that in addition to the engine cutting out going uphill, it also seems to happen mostly at night, when headlights are on and I'm often running the heater. I did a voltage test on the battery as per a how-to video I watched. The video suggested that after putting the positive and negative leads to the respective battery terminals, I should get the following readings on my multimeter:

Battery (engine off): 12.5-12.8 volts
Alternator Running (engine on): 13.8-14.8 volts
Alternator Loaded (running heater/high-beam headlights): Drop in voltage, then returning to 13.8-14.8 volts

I got 12.78 from the battery, 14.75 from the alternator, but when I put on the high beams, radio, and heater, the voltage dropped to almost nothing and never came close to the previous 14.75. Could this mean the alternator is on the way out and causing the jerkiness I described earlier?

For what it's worth, I've also observed that when the jerkiness happens, the tachometer needle drops momentarily as well.
 
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