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What would make my car go dead while driving? RANT

8K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  Dean_T 
#1 ·
Last week before I cleaned out my carb my car went dead on me on the way home from work. I blamed the carb. I cleaned the carb, and the next day it happened again. I blamed the timing, which I knew to be too far retarded. I fixed the timing, and it didn't happen again. Until today. It has been nearly a week and I've driven the car almost every day. It went dead 7 or 8 times on the 15 mile trip home. No warning, I'm driving along and the next thing I know I'm coasting. I shift to neutral, and sometimes it lets me crank (restart) while rolling but most of the time (about 5/8) it makes me stop first. There were a couple more times I could feel the car starting to go, and I would feather the gas and keep it alive. When I could feel it coming it was very sudden, not a sputtering to stay alive running out of gas type feeling. I have not done anything to the car in the past week and it did not go dead on me the first time, then today it starts showing its @$$. I feel lucky to just have made it home without having a wreck (imagine coasting to a stop on a 4 lane highway with no place to pull off and with cars behind you....not a safe feeling). I have been having a tapping noise from either the pass side valve cover or the fuel pump. Could the fuel pump be crapping out on me? I checked my fuel PSI a few weeks back and got 4.5 PSI steady at all RPMs. What gets me is it happens so suddenly. I either notice I'm slowing down and push the gas but nothing happens, or I look at my tach and see 0 RPMs. When it goes dead sometimes the warning lights come on immediately, and sometimes I have to slow to a stop first. When I put it in park it fires up first time no problem and the idle is fine.

What could be causing this? This car is a daily driver and obviously this kind of behavior is unacceptable. It can happen when I speed up, or when I'm slowing down, or when I'm just cruising along at a constant speed. I can rev the car all I want in park and do not go dead. Please help if you can :(
 
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#4 ·
I agree with a loose coil wire (on the coil). Start the engine, let it idle and jiggle the wires. Do the same with the ignition wire.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for all the advice :) I checked the wire that goes goes from the coil to the dizzy and it felt a little looser on the coil end than I would like. I used a flatheaded screwdriver to pry the prongs a little further apart to ensure a more snug fit. I also noticed the bracket that holds the coil to the intake was a little loose, allowing the coil to wobble back and forth. I also tightened it down. I drove about 5 miles to the store for gas and back and it didn't go dead the first time. I don't want to get my hopes up, considering it hadn't gone dead for the last week either until today, but atleast I *might* have fixed the problem :) If it happens again I'll repost. Thanks :)
 
#6 ·
My experience with loose wire from diz to coil was the car bucked a lot and the tach went from 2000 RPMS to zero and back.

However, how are the wire connections in the other parts of the ignition system?

Regards,

Dean T
 
#8 ·
Most of the wiring appears to be in good shape, but to be honest there are parts of it I've never seen. I suppose it's possible that some of the under dash wiring could be shorting, I guess. I never had the problem with the tach acting strange, aside from an issue with a short in the 12V power supply (my fault, I used the cheap slide-in connector/splicer that came with the tach). I know that when I checked the coil the wire felt loose (it slid off without much of a fight) so I'm hoping that is the culprit. The wire is on well now, so if the problem continues I'll know to look elsewhere. I do still feel a little bucking at certain speeds or when accellerating slowly (the way most people accellerate). When I keep my foot in it the car seems happy. Thanks :)
 
#11 ·
This sounds very similar to the problem I am having with my 70 BOSS 302. I checked all the wiring, changed fuel filter, points, condenser,coil, I ran a hot wire to bypass switch, rebuilt fuel pump, etc, etc, etc,/forums/images/icons/mad.gif. Good thing I own a NAPA store /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif. So I figured I wasn't going to lose this battle, so I ripped the whole car apart. Guess I showed it who the real BOSS was! /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif I think?!?!?!?
 
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#12 ·
Had an ignition switch do that to me once - Jiggling the key would make the engine cut out and sometimes die. If you continue to have the problem, you might try wiring a test light to the hot side of the coil thru the firewall and see if it goes out when the car dies. Might give you a place to start ...
 
G
#14 ·
This same problem happened to me for about a week with the convertible. It turned out to be the wire to the coil was loosing it's gripiness on the post and would pop loose enough to not make connection. I cut off the old connector, put on a spade, and never had a problem since (1 1/2 years).
 
G
#15 ·
Beware! If the coil wire is not real tight on there, it is unlikely that bending it, squeezing it, or whatever will work for the long term. I tried that for 2 weeks before I finally got disgusted & cut the push on terminal off. Once these things get a little out of shape they're not so keen on staying put on the coil. I would either replace the harness wire or cut the connector off and put on a spade. Just my opinion
 
#16 ·
It's possible your electronic ignition control module is overheating and cutting out on you. This is a chronic problem for Ford, and I heard they are settling for quite a large sum of money to get out of a lawsuit.

If you have an ignition system with an external ignition module, make certain it is mounted in the path of airflow. I have my Duraspark module mounted below my windshield washer resevoir.

If you have an ignition system with a distributor mounted ignition module (Pertronix, Mallory, etc) consult the manufacturer.

Check for loose, frayed, burnt, wiring. Any connector or wiring that look suspect replace.

Good luck!!!
 
G
#17 ·
This might not be it but in my '65 i had an aftermarket tach hooked up and one day i was driving along and all the sudden the car died. checked everything and realized there wasnt any spark. well i then realized it was my tach. the tach shorted out somehow and my car just died. i rewired the tach completely and to be safe put in a new coil. that was the problem- havent had any problems for about 6 months.
 
#18 ·
Ford lost a suit regarding TFI ignition system. The Duraspark system is second to GM's HEI for spark quality but Chryler ignition modules are better - as heard from Dr Jacobs and VMF.

That TFI give's me the willies. One friend of mine had his '87 GT quit completely and won't restart. A neighor's '89 GT would try to die every once in awhile. Both due to TFI modules. What I can't determine is if the '93 Ford Lightening uses a similar module mounted elsewhere or a completely different module. I have a '93 Lightening distributor on the 1/2 a fastback but it has plug leads and the mounting surface for a TFI unit on the diz housing doesn't have provisions for a diz mounted TFI unit.

Regards,

Dean T
 
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