4-cyl fun!

I thought I'd update those of you 4-banger owners of the "fun" I've been going through as a possible reference if you run into any of these issues. I have an 84 SE where the O2 sensor and bung in the manifold broke out leaving a gapeing hole in the manifold. I replaced the exhaust manifold and O2 sensor and then it would not run. I checked the compression and it is weak but ok. It was getting plenty of spark and gas. I thought the gas might be bad and tried starting fluid and gas direct into the throttle body. The only way it would even try to start was with the accellerater to the floor. I pulled the EGR valve and replaced it- thought I had it because the old one had lost some of its travel. With the new EGR in place, I tried to start it and still, nothing. We pulled the EGR and the valve cover (just grasping at straws) and turned it over-without the EGR installed-and she fired right up! She blew exhaust out of the EGR hole, which makes me believe the exhaust is restricted-probably the cat converter. It was also making a high pitched squeel, which was the alternator belt. I twisted off the top bolt to the alternator, which added to my "to-do" list.
My plan now was to take out the alternator and drill out the bolt, re-install and drop the exhaust from the manifold and install the EGR again. If my theory is correct, she should run, all be it loud- and can move to the exhaust from there. However, nothing EVER goes as planned working on a Fiero, and in removing the alternator, the bottom bolt fell out. The lower alternator housing and the bracket had disentigrated!! Of course, the old alternator would not fit out the bottom like the book says, even after draining the oil so I could get the filter out of the way. I ended up removing the dogbone and bracket so I could both remove the alternator and get to the lower alternator bracket bolts to remove it.
So thats where I am at. I have a couple of sources getting back to me Monday (hopefully) with availability of a bracket and probably a used alternator. I'd buy a new one, but I need to make sure this old pig is going to run before I invest in any new parts! So thats it for the saga for now- will update as soon as I get further. Cheers!

Sorry to keep you 55 readers sitting on the edge of your seats so long, kinda happens when you're married with children, don't you know. Anyway, I got my alternator and bracket in earlier this week from a very helpful fellow named Todd at www.thefierofarm.com- this dude has everything and is very helpful with tech questions. I had every intention of blowing work off Friday to get a head start on this, but my boss came to town and changed my mind. So Saturday morning I hit it hard and heavy, got the Alternator bracket and alternator on and spent the rest of the morning cleaning the old gasket off the valve cover and head. You're right, if I had any sence I'd of had that clean and ready while waiting for my parts to come in. Have I mentioned this Fiero is in my wifes part of the garage (she thinks) and we've been getting alot of snow and ice? She's pretty happy. She took me to her company Christmas party last week where I meet with her co-workers husbands on an annual basis. One in particular knows I'm always working on something, so he asks. I start the story about how this all got started, mentioning the O2 sensor being blown out and he immediately says" is your cat converter plugged?" Luckily for him I was pre-mellowed with a Long Island Ice Tea, or he might have got stabbed with a cocktail sword.
Moral of this story is you can probably save alot of time going to a tavern first to get diagnosis help and then try a message board! Anyway, I tacked the gasket to the valvecover last night and plan to have it all together later this morning (Sunday) before football. I plan on dropping the exhaust to test my theory. Stay tuned...

What a morning! I got the garage heated this morning and got to work.
I started out by putting the oil filter on and then the valve cover. All is good, put on the ERG and then the dog done bracket and dog bone. Damn I'm good. Time for the alternator belt. Where's the Jim Beam? What a bear- brand new from NAPA, and of course they are not open on Sunday when dudes like me actually have time to play in a garage. Off to Autozone with the old belt and bring back another. Still no go. 10:15am and still looking for the Jim Beam. Finally I decide to remove the lower carraige bolt to the alternator to allow the belt to slip over. Just try to get that carraige bolt back through the bracket and alternator-! Jeeze!- thank you Mr. Beam-its in, and I'm still not bleeding much. I then hook up all the little crap and fill her with oil. Just now am I too the point where I actually get to test my theory of a plugged cat converter. I jack the rear up further to take a better look and damn, its cold under that car! Jim to the rescue...again. I tap on the cat and it sounds like a rock, so in with my cordless drill. I start out small and get bigger with the bits drilling a hole in the middle of it and smelly fluid drains out into my oil drain pan. Seem to have releived some pressure- re-attach the negative cable to the battery and hit the key. She fires right up!! Success!! Then I step on the accelerator and no increase in engine speed-like stepping on a plum. What the heck? I know I have the timing screwed up but this didn't seem timing related. Time to walk away. My 5 year old son came out with me later and we looked again- he stomped on the gas while I checked out what was happening under the hood. The accelerator cable is rotted in the middle and needs replaced. Oh well, time for football. I'll check on cable availability Monday and continue the saga from there. Hope this insight is helping some of you! Cheers!

Where does it end? I was able to order a new throttle cable from my local dealership last week and it came in Friday. I hit the garage at 9:00 this am and got to work. I checked out the new cable compared to the old to get an idea what to do. I got it all disconected in the endine compartment and moved to the interior. I still have the council between the seats out from when I mis-diagnosed the ECU earlier, and that was just the beginning of the "fun". I read in my shop manual that the center and front council/stuff all had to come out- and it sure did. A zillion little screws later, the radio, heater controls, ductwork, and center council is out. With all that out of the way, I still can't get to the end of the cable to release it from the petal assembly. I did remove a peice of ductwork that did free up a little working room, but not much.
So now I have the inside all tore out and still have to get the cable out, and hope I remember how all this stuff goes back in! I'll try again tomorrow- Cheers!

Wow- what a deal. knocked off work a little and thought I'd take on that throttle cable again. Here's the secret: REMOVE THE PEDAL ASSEMBLY! That makes it a piece of cake both removing the old cable and installing the new- little over an hour. Even got started on re-installing the council. Should get back to it either later this week or by the weekend.
Cheers!

lol, thanks for this story. It actually helps to her other people doing work so you don't do the same mistakes. As I have come down this road a bit and in the end it was a waisted $100 and loss of 2 days, still not fixed either, but I have a better idea of what it is. Especially when different mechanics are telling me different things -.-

Bottom line - was it a plugged cat converter? We are trying to start an 86 Fiero. We replaced the ignition coil because it was not getting fire. Now, it acts like it wants to start, but won't. Poured gas down the throttle and it will act like it wants to start for about 1 - 2 seconds. Any thoughts?

Yes, it was definately an exhaust restriction. I drilled a 1/2" hole in the cat converter and drained a ton of fluid out and it fired right up. I don't know if you are on the Pennock's Forum, but I responded to a post that sounds very familiiar to yours. Dude, I know you have a V6, but if you can drop the exhaust, even enough to create a good leak between the manifold and the rest of the exhaust, that should be enough to determine if it is a restriction. The cat converter is really the only part in the exhaust where a restriction can occur- short of a potato in the tail-pipe! lol- give it a shot and let me know-
Thanks! Cheers-
PS- I have to put the rest of the council and dash back together before I can actually drive it again-and re-time it. Unless something else has broke in the meantime...

Greetings all from Hell's Fiero Garage! Not so bad actually- Had a little hangup putting the radio and other council compontents back together. I couldn't remember the order the 3 harness's went back into the radio, but they'll only go one way-Plus someone told me the order. Radio, heater control panel and window switches all worked, so I put the rest together (after I cleaned it up- nows the time to clean those council components!). She fired right up! Throttle cable works great! Need to get my neighbor back over to get the timing light on this beast. That, and I think I'm planning on replacing the radiator and heater hoses, thermostat, and flush out the system. Stay tuned!

Been a while since I've posted on the Fiero-been busy on the TA and SSEi. Finally got some good 70degree+ weather this weekend and was able to work on the Fiero outside in the driveway. Got out the trusty sawsall and chopped off the old Cat converter- good thing I did! Even though I had drilled a hole in it to help clear the blockage, without removing it I would have never found the chunks of the converter blown out and stuck in the pipe between the converter and the muffler. I'm hoping to have a "temporary" replacement pipe in place later this week to see if that helps my problem. My 2 bolts that attach the exhaust to the manifold with the springs seemed loose, so I tryed to tighten them-not sure they are tightening much. We'll see. I plan on removing the old sunroof rubber with a new one now that it's nice out.
Stay tuned-

Played a little hooky from work Friday-75 degrees out- and worked on that Fiero. I was able to weld in the new "temporary" pipe and with all the exhaust restrictions (chunks of cat converter honeycomb) removed, she fired right up and ran pretty strong. Of course it has $1.09/gallon gas in it from 2 years ago! Should have sold that on E-bay- Got a minor throttle hang-up from the new cable, but easy to work around. She has more pep than I ever remember her having, so she can almost keep up with an '82 S-10 pulling a Fifth wheel. Replaced the sunroof rubber (its funny how those things grow as you glue them in)and monkeyed with the sunroof. It was not pulling tight against the rubber. I made a couple of adjustments but will wait for rain to see how sucessful I was. Any tips?? I pulled out the seats and put on some new covers, left the passenger side out so I could remove the headliner. That was a fun groody job! Picked up 1 1/2 yards of headliner fabric today and hope to re-glue this week. Anyone ever done a sunvisor before?? Now that winter is over and I finally have that Fiero mobile again, it's lost my wifes winter garage space.....for my SSEI! My wife is thrilled that her Montana is still outside-with the FIERO! Oh well-
Stay tuned-