Aries running bad. Help!

[ARIES89]

Hey 86 Reliant. Good to see yah. By the way, my own car today led me closer to diagnosing the problem. Even though the car still started up rough today in cold weather, it didn't not idle nearly as bad. It did spew some black soot. The morning temp and wet dewlike conditions were exactly the same today and yesterday. Also, the car mysteriously ran better by running smoother. The slipping trannylike symptoms at 65mph on the freeway completely disappeared. Most of the erratic idling went away. The gas mileage may have picked up. This tells me my problem is most likely electrical. My computer was put in crooked 5 years ago which may have allowed corrosion as my computer has been misbaving with codes and disrupting my fuel-air ratio mixture. Now, this is just a guess that I have mentioned. Also, this car has spent most of its life outside for 19 years on the street. I have a plan to start simple and not to throw parts at the car.

[charger R/T]

a scanner will not just pull codes but it will give live data. For instance I have had some problems with a jeep at work it wasn't setting codes but by hooking up the scanner first thing in the morning and turning on the key without starting it. It showed the coolant temp sensor was reading wrong. With a cold engine the sensors that read temp should read the same temp as it is outside. This one was about 50 degrees off so it was clear it wasn't right. It turned out there was some corrosion at the plug. Some of the older OTC scanners can be had for a good price on ebay. Do some searches here to learn about them if interested. I am a mechanic and use a snap on scanner I bought years ago. If that was my car I would start at the basics since it isn't setting codes. Check things like cam timing, ignition timing, cap rotor, wires and plugs. With the way it is running even if the plugs are not old you may end up having to replace them again. There are many threads here to learn about how to check the things I listed. You can fix this it will just take a lot of reading to learn the basics then executing the checks. If unclear on something just post many here have learned to do this stuff and there are many knowledgeable people here.
Tim

[envyyourethics]

BTW, Part throttle unlock is for the transmission. It is for the lock-up converter. I unpluged mine when it started to buck and shake at acceleration. After unplugging the bucking stopped. Worth a shot.

The TBI's are more of a money pit then i ever imagined.(I put $2500 in a 87' aries wagon i bought for $200)It now sits in a JY.

Best move i made was moving up to a TI.

[ARIES89]

That doesn't sound good. What does TI stand for. By the way, last night, the computer threw codes again. They were the same ones as thrown months ago, except both appeared at the same time. This happened when the check engine light came on. They were 31 and 37. Also, today the car started doing the bogging and trannylike symptoms again. Then, it kind of wore off somewhat. I am going to the eletrical place next week.

[91shelby]

TI refers to the Turbo 1 setup