90 LX MT starts, idles, then dies when placed in gear

[Harriers Wake]

Before the car was placed into a barn for two years of storage (Garage was full of tenants furniture, #dontgetmestarted) it would start, idle just fine and then die when placed into gear. The car is now out of the barn, into the garage and I'd love to get it back on the road. The battery is dead but will obviously be replaced, fresh gas etc. I searched through a couple of threads with similar issues but they seemed slightly more complicated (as far as I can tell) than this issue and a couple of the very similar posts seemed to have been resolved without a follow-up post (I will attempt to include one for this issue). So...

1.) Depress clutch pedal, turn key.
2.) Crank-Vroom
3.) Idle stabilizes (Damn this Vibrant exhaust sounds dope. [Do... do we still say "Dope"??])
4.) Depress clutch pedal, Shift into 1st gear
5.) DED (no throttle input, no release of clutch pedal)

Thoughts?

Note; I will have to get the car running to effect a fix, but that shouldn't be an issue, maybe a couple days to get to the store etc. Getting it to move is my end goal.

[Fleetw00d]

When you say "stabilizes", stabilizes at high idle (seconds after starting), or are you letting it get to operating temperature and the idle stabilizing at around 750 rpm? You depressed the clutch in #1 and in #4, did you start it in neutral and let the clutch up? Will it idle indefinitely until you actually shift into 1st? In #4, how quickly are you shifting into 1st after depressing the clutch; is it actually dying when you depress the clutch pedal the second time? This is all repeatable every time you attempt to start it?

[Harriers Wake]

To begin, I hadn't driven the car in a couple of months at the time, but it had driven fine on an ebay transmission swap for about a year up to that point. I was trying to move across town that day and was starting the car like a regular day, to drive about 15 miles, so I only let it get to high idle. I did start in neutral, and I'm almost positive I let the clutch up after #1, but it was a little over 2 years ago now, so I may be remembering that part wrong. At the time it also had an occasional loping idle, but yes, it would idle all day like that if I let it. I shifted into 1st fairly quickly and I want to say it was dying when I moved the stick, because I feel like the car was already dying out by the time I would release the clutch. It did it about four times, the same way every time, but I wasn't able to try to diagnose as I needed to get to U-haul and rent a car hauler to get it to the new house by the end of that day. I threw it in the barn to get it out of the way during the move and by the time all was squared away and I could mess with it, our tenant had moved in and was using our garage and barn for storage. Now that he's moving out, I want to see if I can get it running and moving. If I can get it running again I'm going to try to replicate what I did and clarify precisely what happens, when etc, but how I listed it is pretty much what I remember from the day. I'm planning a K-swap+restoration, so in your opinion, is it even worth messing with or should I yank the F and clean slate it?

[Fleetw00d]

I know how life can be; I'd make an attempt to get it running (makes it easier to move around) and you may need to drive it in the meantime. I just can't imagine how shifting from neutral to first would affect anything that would cause the engine to die.

[Fleetw00d]

I had problem with mine dying between shifts if I took too long. May be a long shot - check your coolant level and bleed it to make sure the FITV has coolant getting to it.

[Harriers Wake]

Ok, got a chance to mess with it a little bit this weekend. I put it on a trickle charger for a few days just to see if the battery would charge. In the mean time, I checked all the fluids. Coolant was fine but I threw in some brake fluid and PS fluid because they were low. So I check on it three days later and the charger is showing green, battery fully charged. As surprising as that was, it was nothing next to the fact that after a couple of coughs, it fired right up on Friday. This is where it gets weird. I throw it in gear, trying to see if it'll die/recreate the prior issues. The sumbitch didn't die. So I take it up and down the street a couple times and other than reverting to it's usual loping idle, it's running like a beast. I back it into the garage, shut it off and go in for the night. The next two days it fires right up. Take it up and down the street, everything cool. I haven't gone farther because it's tag ran out in 17, not trying to get a ticket. Anywho, yesterday had it running and shut it off, but decided to mess with the driver side window because somebody put a woodscrew in the top position in the guide(clip is broken and it throws the window outside the rubber at the top. Key is in position 2 or 3(can't remember) to run the window. I give up messing with it and get back in to start it back up. Clutch in, turn key, loud SNAP! Power dead. Turn the key again, solenoid doesn't even click, nothing. Just the tiniest bit of Illumination on the idiot lights, I mean so dim I almost missed it. I hooked it back up to the trickle charger, thought maybe it wasn't charging, but it was back in the green in an hour. But still nothing when I turn the key and the idiot lights don't even light up dim now. My guess is maybe a fuse, but I was so angry I couldn't bring myself to crawl into the footwell to look. I guess this thread is irrelevant now though. I love this car, but damn...

[Grumpys93]

Just out of curiosity, have you tightened the negative terminal on the battery? Having it sit on the post loose can cause these issues. I would look under the hood fusebox before the footwell for any blown fuses as well. Have you checked all the chassis grounds?

[ShipOfTheseus]

Yeah, I had a somewhat similar issue recently except it would idle fine, go into gear fine, and the second I let off the gas after giving it any throttle at all it died, it would also do much better and almost work entirely after I charged it all the way with a trickle charger. Turned out it was an electrical short in a couple places, loose negative terminal on the battery, and an overcharging alternator. If you have a multimeter I would go through and check to make sure that the relay switch, alternator, and starter are all getting power. The alternator was the main culprit with my issues, this is the section of the maintenance manual for testing the alternator:

[Harriers Wake]

Just out of curiosity, have you tightened the negative terminal on the battery? Having it sit on the post loose can cause these issues. I would look under the hood fuse box before the footwell for any blown fuses as well. Have you checked all the chassis grounds?

Sorry y'all, It's been a cool minute since I was able to mess with the car and get back to you guys (new preemie baby in the house). Thank you for the input and suggestions. Went about checking the grounds and the Negative battery terminal ground broke off in my hand when I touched it. I ordered a new one and threw it on, car fired right up and drove, and now the initial symptoms of this post seem to have resolved at this point. Just wanted to come back and not leave everyone hanging. Thanks again for the input. Now I gotta figure out what's leaking oil on the back side of the engine...

[Fleetw00d]

Back of the engine is likely the oil pressure switch; it is located above the oil filter. If it is an F22A1 engine, it doesn't have an oil cooler between the block and filter. Trying to remember what else is on the back.