Engine just quit

Stan

Stan

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I don't understand. Driving along fine then the engine stumbled, tach went to zero.
Then engine caught again and contined another 50 miles. As I pulled off the highway, stumbled again but this time no restart. Engine turns, 1/2 tank of fuel. Been running for at least an hour. Just wont fire
 
Are you running a Pertronics?

Mine did the same thing when I ran Pertronics. Stumble, tach to zero, engine would just stop. Turn off key and car would start, then repeat the stall a little while later.

Now I'm running points and condenser, it solved the problem.
 
Sometimes a Pertronix Ignitor module can appear to fail when the plate in the distributor is not completely tightened down, resulting in a bad ground. I've had Pertronix setups in at least 5 different cars. I've only had a problem twice. Once with the above issue, which was remedied in seconds using a screwdriver, and once when the 20+ year old module in my '67 Datsun actually did fail.

adawil2002 said:
Are you running a Pertronics?

Mine did the same thing when I ran Pertronics. Stumble, tach to zero, engine would just stop. Turn off key and car would start, then repeat the stall a little while later.

Now I'm running points and condenser, it solved the problem.
Click to expand...
 
It could be the Pertronix, or something else specific to the ignition.

It could also be the "load shedding relay". Was anything else electric not working when the tach and ignition were dead? I like the load shedding relay as a suspect, as something mechanical like a relay can fail, revive, and fail again. Something electronic, like a Pertronix, is more likely to stay dead after a failure (unless it has a bad ground, as sreams describes in the post above).
 
It Lives

OK, I sat in the car for about 10 minutes turned the key and it started right up.
Might could be a Pertroinix related problem. Also was told it could be an old coil...
 
or a bad battery, or ground, or ....

Unfortunately, an intermittant electrical problem could be darned near anything. And they're worse when they come and go - the best situation is when it goes dead and stays dead - then you can trace it.

Good luck with the diagnosis!
 
Stan,

Don't know if you are still running with a mechanical fuel pump or not, but I had similar symptoms when the electric fuel pump in my daily driver was starting to fail. Seemed to me like the pump motor would overheat and stop running, but given time to cool down a bit (sitting on the side of the road) it would pump again...for a while at least
 
ignition wires

i had something sim happen to me recently, turned out to be bad coil wire. in general if car quits suddenly/abruptly is prob electical, if more gradual sputtering is prob fuel.
 
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