What causes a car to lose its charge moments after firing up?

Question

I have an 1987 Toronado. She is a beauty and in great shape, yet I always come accross a problem. When I start it up in the morning, it'll fire up but die moments later. I've tried idling for 3-4 minutes, yet it'll either lose the charge in between, or lose its charge when I take it out of the park position. My battery seems fine, and it doesn't die once I get it going good. I can feel it lose its charge, and I press on the gas all the way and give it enough juice to keep it going. So, anybody know what the problem could be?

EDIT: Guess I wasn't thorough enough, by lose its charge I mean that the engine dies.

EDIT: I'm getting mixed answers, so I think I'll have to provide a scenario.

Okay, walk out of my house in the "morning" to get to school. Get in the car, put the key in, turn and its on. I press on the break and shift into reverse. Almost instantly, the engine sputters and then dies. I start it again, I put it into a reverse, I am able to back it up, and then when I switch into drive it dies the same way. Start it again, put it in drive, get out a little ways, it slows down like its about to do it again, but I press on the gas to give it juice. It struggles, then jolts out and I can start driving. Any stops I make, I have to do the same press hard on gas to fight inevitable dead engine thing again, and after 1-2 stops like that it stops and works fine.

Answer 1

It sounds like you have a major vacuum leak that diminishes when the engine heats up. Check the carburetor gasket , your intake manifold pan gasket, particularly where the intake manifold meets the heads and the seal at the back of the intake manifold by the firewall. Look at your power brake booster hose and the PVC hose at the base of the carburetor.

Answer 2

You have a cold start problem due to the choke not working,it is a device for richening the mixture for a cold engine,when engines and fuel is cold it does not burn to well so they put a choke butterfly on top of the carb to lower the vacuum depression that make the fuel mixture really rich,you may not be able to fix this yourself.I would suggest you buy a haines manual from the parts store on carbs.I f not take it to a mechanic

Answer 3

It sounds more like a cold idle problem than your battery. Use a multimeter across the battery and see if you have 13.6VDC . If not, then you could have a bad alternator or voltage regulator. good luck. Take it somewhere and get it checked out to be sure.

Answer 4

if u can get the car started its probably not the battery! now if its dying out on u when u pull it out of park it could be a couple different things. it could be ur torque converter staying engaged, or ur idle air control motor or ur tps, it could be a hole gang of things, u would need to post more symptoms, and condtions

Answer 5

Either the alternator, ignition coil or ignition module.

try to have someone keep it running and check the battery with a volt meter, if it reads 14.4 volts, than the alternator is fine, than I would check for spark, if your getting spark, change the ignition module.

Answer 6

Does it lose electrical power or does the engine die? Or both?

Answer 7

need alternater checked,stator,is bad.wont open immediatly to charge low battery after start up

Answer 8

it is probably because the choke is not working