Hi, I'm posting this in the Pontiac part because these cars are basically twins and I thought I might get some feedback here.
I just recentley started to bring a 93 Skylark Custom 3.3litre back from the dead. The new parts I've added are plugs,wires, icm, used coils, O2 sensor, Vaccum lines, alt, battery cut out cat and new exhaust, and many chassis parts.
I hooked up a tech 1 scanner and found the O2 sensor was no good and replaced it, though it did not throw any codes?? The car still stumbles and missfires once and a while and smells of unburnt gas??
The main problem I have now is I was taking it for it's first run and everything was fine until I braked heavy and the engines just cut out. I restarted it fine and as soon as I put it in gear it dies immedialty(can't even give it a nautral drop). As the car runs in P or N you can hear a gear or something grinding in the transmission. If give it about 30 minutes it drives fine again until it warms up. The scanner even shows the tcc is off???(all this takes place at speeds of 60 km/h)
I already hate this car, does anyone have any ideas why the scanner says it is still running lean when everthing else is normal and why she won't drive in gear?
I appreciate you spending the time to read this, any help would be greatly appreciated, Rob.

Your Torque convertor is locking up causing the engine to cut out when you hit the brakes, just like if you are driving a manual trans, and don't hit the clutch when coming to a stop. Some people unplug the torque converter and drive it that way, until it goes out completely. It costs about 250 to repair it at a shop.

Thanks for the fast reply, but will it grind in N or P?

No problem!

It will grind when you attempt to shift it out of park or neutral into the next gear. Basically the trans is stuck in 2nd, 3rd or overdrive, so when you shift, it's trying to go from one of those gears, into the gear you are shifting into such as 1st or reverse. The best way to get out of it is to start form neutral and try to bring it all the way down to first. eventually it will either unlock or go into first. You may also get a grinding nosie when slowing down when it begins to lock up. You are better off getting it fixed before you cause tranny damage though.

Thank-you, very much appreciated!!

Also if you are hearing a grinding sound, chances are someone else has been doing N drops to get it going at stops.

And thiers a big possibility something else could be wrong too. I riped out many planitary gears in those older 3.3 N bodies :grinyes:

Good Luck !

Planetary gears in automatics don't grind so you shouldn't hear gear on gear grinding. I'd guess that your trans problems are most all torque converter related lock-up n all.

As for the scantool saying the car is running lean when you can smell the unburnt fuel. Seems as though your O2 sensor isn't working, have you checked it and it's circuit through more accurate means than the scantool which only tells you what the computer "thinks" is wrong/going on. Basically because it believes it's running too lean it's dumping more fuel to correct the lean condition but if the car really isn't running lean then the extra fuel will make it run rich and the computer will never correct it because it never knows that it's running rich (still believes it's running lean).

I changed the trans fluid and filter last night and uplugged the tcc and it didn't act up at all, no metal but lots of clutch gumbo(so thank you for that guys/girls).
How do you manually check the O2 sensor? After I changed the old one the scanner showed the propper voltage when the loop was closed, though it still showed LEAN and the fuel trim was a little bit off. The car idles fine and revs up alright without any hesitation or stumbling out of gear(sounds tight and good), but as soon as you gas it in gear it will occassionaly missfire and stumble without throwing any codes and is very sluggish and just reaks of gas.
Will changing the cam and crank sensor possibly help, or is this were the proccess of elimination comes into play. I really do appreciate the feedback from you guys/girls, thank-you.

Planetary gears in automatics don't grind so you shouldn't hear gear on gear grinding. I'd guess that your trans problems are most all torque converter related lock-up n all.

I garuantee you do to many N drops and it will grind from the planetary gears in an automatic!

Alot of times, gas smell coming from the engine bay is the rubber seals on the injectors allowing fuel to leak.

But from what you are explaining now, it sounds like the TCC is bad and not unlocking the Torqu converter when it should.

FINALLY!!!! New fuel regulator, filter, gas and brake lines (very rusty, broke them getting filter off!), pcv, new inj, new tpc, iac, ign mod., coils, wires, plugs, crank sensor, evey vacuum line possible, ecm, I even changed the bloody motor mounts it was shaking so bad!!, Tcc solenoid, throttle body gasket, maf sensor, hours and hours of voltmeter testing and ground cleaning, was about to do timing chain but thought I'd check the coils (even though they were new) All of this equals.......................................


Broken spark plug on cylinder 2!!!!!!!!!!(was the first thing I changed of course)I almost had a little cry, hehehe.

Well that sounds like you hav replaced about everything that could possibley go bad.