1989 Chevy S-10 Engine "jumping"

ISHEE77

MEMBER
1989 CHEVROLET S-10

Engine Performance problem
1989 Chevy S-10 6 cyl Four Wheel Drive Manual unknow miles

My friend has had this s-10 for a few years now and just this last summer it started acting up. In each gear when the RPM's start to get higher before its time to shift, the engine starts to "jump", like what would happen to a beginner on a manual transmission, except not as harsh. The acceleration is poor and when the vehicle finally makes it into 5th gear it takes a very long time to get to 55mph if it even makes it above 45mph. Applying too much accelerator will cause it to bog down slightly and to jump again. The problem gets better after the truck has been running for a while around 30-45 minutes. He believes its a fuel filter clog. I think it could be a possible vaccuum leak or throttle body fault. I haven't been able to get under the hood a look at everything so I'm stumped beyond that.

2 Replies

RHALL77

MECHANIC
3,361 POSTS

Could be any of them. When was the last tune up they had? Does it seem like the transmission is slipping?

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Friday, January 30th, 2009 AT 8:11 AM

ISHEE77

MEMBER
20 POSTS

Yeah, thats what I thinking, going to do trial and error and eliminate each one. It hasn't had a tune-up in quite some time. He won't do it, but I offer to do it for him and he just says no.

Dunno his deal.

Anyways, the transmission doesn't slip, but it may have a bad synchro but I know that thats not causing the problem. I was also thinking that the cat may be plugged causing it to have poor acceleration. He says its got to be the rings, but obviously its not because there isn't any blow by or loss of compression. Plus, it would have died by now.