[JTFlubber]

Just bought an 1986 Spider Graduate with 63K miles. Wasn't starting and had clutch/brake issues. I replaced the brake & clutch masters, and clutch slave, new main fuel pump & filter. Started up and ran SMOOTH! Sounded and ran great. Then, I kept tinkering and pulled the fuel sender and in-tank pump...very rusty and saw some dirt/rust in the tank. Scraped the sender/pump and reinstalled...which is when problems started.
Next drive, the car started but idled roughly. Drove it and it ran smooth for awhile, then started coughing/hesitating again. Feel like the problem got worse when going uphill, had the gas floored and barely made it home. Now, car starts but sounds like not all cylinders firing - or weak compression. Please help.

 

[Gubi]

My guess is that you may have messed up the in-tank pump and it's not working, or it sucked rust and is not working, or you sucked rust and plugged up the main fuel filter. If you do a search there are ways to test the in-tank pump in-situ.

The in-tank pump is supposed to have a filter sock on its intake. Was it there and did it look okay?

 

[JTFlubber]

Thanks Gubi. Come to think of it, I did not see the filter bag at the bottom of the pump...dang! Now I hope I didn't cause dirt to get to the engine and mess up injectors/vales/etc! I've ordered a new sending unit, pump filter. Do you think that replacing those will get her purring perfectly again...I hope...?

 

[Gubi]

The big canister fuel filter will grab any stuff so it's unlikely you messed up the engine. That's the point of that big filter, it protects the injectors.

If you sucked crud from the tank (which is quite likely if the sock fell off and the tank had crap in it) you should test everything from the filter back. Best case you just clogged up the in-tank pump.

My recommendation is to pull and clean the tank so you don't repeat this.

 

[JTFlubber]

Thank you...

Sounds good, thanks! Plan to do that this week and will keep fingers crossed and report back results...

 

[Forzaguy]

Might as well change that big can filter too considering all the crud in the tank.