Sneezysmom

Well howdy! I would love to get my husband's '81 back on the road. It is Queen of the Garage right now.

Any help on 2 matters would be appreciated.

1. I need a reputable, pref non-dealer mechanic to work on this. We are in S New Jersey, not far from Philly.

2. The major problem is that you can run the car fine for up to 20 minutes driving round town and then it will refuse to go over 5 mph...mostly my father in law drives it and he thinks it is the brakes. I think it is the tranny (no brake smell). The dealership had a few stabs at it and didn't fix it, hence question number 1, above.

This car is hubz' primary source of recreation...other than his kids' sporting events... so let's help the guy out!

Thx in advance!

scrappy76

Does it still have the catalytic converter ? Good possibility its clogged.

Sneezysmom

Knowing my husband, I will say, "yes." I doubt he ever thought to modify from factory installed parts.

bashcraft

Without more information, no one will be able to help you.

Gordonm

The converters from the early 80s were known to plug up and smoother the engine. Depending on mileage, the age of the car is obviously old I would replace the converter regardless. If it isn't totally clogged it is restricting performance anyway.

What town in S Jersey are you located. I do a lot of side work but my plate is pretty full now. My LS3 swap and I have a complete suspension changeover on another car and later am lined up for a motor and trans swap on another Vette.

Slotehog

If you can stand to wait....THIS is the guy!

Good luck.

Andy

Sneezysmom

Gordon and Slote, thank you for taking the time to reply. Obviously, I know very little about the car and for this I apologize. As I said in the title of my initial thread, it is an '81. It has less than 50k miles on it, but exactly how much I do not know. It gets run, when running, less than 200 miles a year....probably more like less than 50 a year.

This problem has persisted for over a year now. Clearly time is not of the essence. Gordon, we are in Cherry Hill. Please contact me at Sneezysmom@gmail.com to further discuss any options that may be available to us.

Many thanks!

scrappy76

What I am chopped liver ,
Just kidding, lol. Anyhoo, I just fixed a 86 vette that belong to this woman, a friend of my wifes. she not only had a clogged Cat, but she also ran it out of gas. It was a show getting it running again. Once I replaced the Cat, I had to get all the gunk from the bottom of the tank out of the injectors.
A good way to tell if the Cat is clogged, is to start the car and let it run. once it warms up look underneath at where the exhaust pipe goes into the Cat. the pipe will actually start turning red hot or have a slight orange glow to it. It will be easier to see if its kinda dark out. It will glow more,the worse its clogged.

Sneezysmom

Thank you Scrappy! I should have thanked you in the original reply as well. My apologies... I suppose I was still rolling my eyes from something I read earlier... lol

I will get over and check it out this week!

Smom