BTW: my bad MAF did not set a code.

Thank you for the info, the MAF did cross my mind. I bought a fuel pump today but I will check out the MAF first. I live in a very small town and only have weekends to work on the car. It is frustrating because getting parts on the weekend is not an option. So I sometimes get multiple parts for the problem and return the ones not installed. This issue is frustrating because it can be caused by so many things. If it is the MAF the pump can be returned. Again, thanks for your input and good luck with the issues you are having on your car. I am sorry I have no input for your issue.

Doug

Usually, when it is bad enough, you can unplug the MAF <it will set a code> and then the car will run based on the oxygen sensors and throttle position sensor <simply put, making a best guess>. This can be done for fairly short periods of time <like a drive home for instance> and should give you some meaningful data to work with. If it runs better, start with that <cleaning is a cheap fix usually, they have aerosol spray for that>, if it runs worse, pull over and plug it back in, no harm done.

Since you have to drop the tank to install the fuel pump, and because they are expensive, I would wait on changing out the fuel pump. Have you tried increasing the idle with it sitting in your drive to see if it stumbles or act as if it is starving for fuel? Sitting in the car, put on the parking brake and with foot on the brake (just for safety sake), put the trans in drive and repeat to see if the engine stumbles This adds the load of the transmission to the engine. If it is starving for gasoline, you should notice.

Before my current problem, my car would cut off coming to a stop and start right back up. Sometimes it would cut off turning a corner. Sometimes it would hesitate as if it wanted to cut off when taking off from a light. I kept having people tell me it was the fuel pump. It was very strange as sometimes it would only do it with a low tank. I know believe it was the MAF that caused that cutoff because the PCM/ECM thought that the air flow was zero and thus the engine was not running, or it calculated the air flow wrong and adjusting the timing of how long to keep the injectors open wrong.

You said you did the JB weld trick for the interrupter magnet, I would check to make sure the magnet is still in position. The way I checked for mine was to take the battery out and rotate the crank by hand. I am very cautious when it comes to working on cars as you can lose fingers or hands in the belts and pulleys. Maybe even disconnect the spark.

Last night I pulled it in and looked at the MAF sensor. The sensor itself looked good and clean. I did notice that the wire loom had rubbed the insulation off the yellow wire at the harness that plugs into the sensor. My multimeter took a crap so I could not test the plug. I will be getting a new one today. I did try to unplug the sensor and run the car. It will not start with the sensor unplugged. It also immeditatly dies if you unplug it while idleing.

The car generally runs fine and does not stall. The times it has stalled on me was at highway speed. This is why I started with the CAM sensor. Even now it does not hesitate or run rough, it just does not have any power. I will also try all of the other suggestions today, I just had enough last night.

Thanks for everyone'* input.

Doug

Sounds like either your timing is messed up or your exhaust is restricted. Can you remove the O2 sensor before the CAT and see if the car runs better. I would think that the cam sensor could mess up the timing. I would expect to see a check engine light.

Thanks for the input, I will be back at it Thursday night. Had to cut firewood last weekend and could not work on the car. Heat takes priority over the commuter car.

I would think if the timing was messed up it would idle rough and stall out, etc. It only stalls out at highway speeds, never has stalled when coming to a stop or starting from a stop. When I started it the other day while it was warming up, it sounds like a light grinding (for lack of a better description) coming from the intake. Other than being loud, is there issue with just unbolting the exhaust at the manifold? I was going to do this to see if the exhaust was restricted. Would removing the O2 sensor do the same thing?

No check engine light at all, just will not go faster than 35 - 40 MPH up the road to my house. Road only has slight incline. Will achieve 40 MPH, upshift like it should and then just falls on its face.

Thanks for your help.

Doug

dont remove the man. it wont run right. removing the o2 will give the exh. somewhere to go if the cat is clogged, but it will also be in open loop (running on preprogramed tables) so it wont be running perfect anyway.

I was not going to remove the manifold, just unbolt the exhaust from the manifold. I think there are 2 bolts with springs that make the connection. I was not sure that the hole for the O2 sensor would be large enough. I will give that a try before unbolting the exhaust.

Thanks for your help,
Doug

If the timing was not advancing with higher rpm you would have no power. Just the fact that this happened right after you change the cam sensor would make me think it may have caused the problem. Usually when your CAT cloggs it makes the engine sound like an air compressor.