Viper jerks or hesitates...please read and give advice.

[Qualitywires.com]

I have a 1994 rt/10. My car runs fine, but I was on the hwy doing about 80mph and it felt like one of the cylinders was dead and then kicked in. The car would **** a little and move on like nothing was wrong. My car seems to idle irratically at times and other times it doesn't. I think If I shut off the car and start it again, it might fix the problem temporalily. Has anyone had this happen? I just changed the plugs and used the champion part #412 which was in it before. Other than that the car seems to run fine. Do you think it's a hardware problem or a computer problem? Any idea's? Sorry for the spelling, my contacts are killing me!

 

[FrankBarba]

i would check the throttle cables is make sure that they are nsync.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Fuel flow maybe? Try changing the fuel filter. If that doesn't help move to the rest of the system all the way to the injectors.
Just a guess.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

If it was fuel related, wouldn't it do it all the time? do you think it might be electrical?

 

[Doug Supercharged Vipers]

If you haven't changed the ignition wires, they are the most likely candidate.
The factory wires are good, but in addition to miles, the "high under the hood temperatures" take their toll in time. It's good practice to replace them every two years or 30k miles.

Good Luck,
Doug

 

[phiebert]

Although at 80mph I can't see this being the case but I'll have to throw it out like HEMIDAYTNA did, are your throttle bodies out of sync. Usually it is most notiecable at slow "parking lot" speeds. The car lurches and jerks but if it is really bad, like mine was (94/RT as well) then it can happen at any speed as long as you are under 2000 rpm. So I haven't checked lately what revs you would have at that speed, but if you are in 6th gear at 80mph and started going downhill (which can put you at that critical point between acceleration and deceleration, the car isn't pulling) I think it could still happen. It really feels like the car is shutting off for a split second and then kicking back in. It's a really easy fix to re sync the throttle bodies but I assume you've already tried that. If not though, give it a whirl. That's my three cents (3 Canadian cents equal two US one's)!!

 

[JonB]

I vote WIRES as well !

(...a new set of OEM wires is about $60 from PartsRack.)

There is a 'chance' that tuner-take offs, even from JPH, have been simply "yanked" off the car, and damaged. (Time is money) and if there is a 10% chance that a YANKED wire is rendered defective, then with 10 wires..........(well, you do the math!)

I'm sure JPH wont mind my "ruining" his potential used wire sale, (which he probably has no time for anyway?!) by suggesting you choose NEW wires.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

Thanks everyone. I will change my wires. I didn't do that when I did my spark plugs. I also need to sync my throttle's too. Jon B I will be giving you a call soon!

 

[Jerry Scott[CO]]

I have seen this many times on my other cars, and it was ignition wiring breaking down. As others have suggested, try changing the wires. As a low cost suggestion, you might call John Hennessey and see if he has a set of take-off wires at a really low price, (maybe $10 or $15). He usually has a pretty good inventory of stock engine parts that were removed at very low mileage for his modifications, and he usually wants to clear this stuff out.

It is very easy to change the wires. Just remove the wipers, then the cowl cover, and start changing the wires one at a time. They are all numbered according to cylinder number.