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I decided to take my 84 out for a drive with the wife and boy. Car was running fine for about an hour and a half. Pulled over to check Google maps to see where we where at for a minute with the car running. Then pulled into a guys driveway to turn around and as soon as I put into reverse it died and now won't start. Cranks fine. Near full tank of gas. Fuel pump sounds normal. I just finished my TB/WP job last week. I thought maybe I skipped a tooth, but I was able to bumm it to TDC and the marks on the can gears are lined up correctly. Checked all fuses and they look good. I did a too top end refresh last year so it has all new plugs, wires, coil, new green wire, injectors cleaned by witch Hunter and all new fuel lines.
So any trouble shooting ideas while I wait for the flatbed?
Well we just got back. Car stopped cold around 1:30 PM today. An hour later while waiting for the flatbed I read Stan's post about checking the battery cables. I didn't originally think to check them since the starter was cranking strong. But sure enough the negative connection at the battery was real loose. So I snugged it up and vroom, it fired right up! Sweet. Canceled the tow and we were back on the road at 3 PM. Car ran sweet then an hour and a half later while going about 70 on the highway it justs dies. Fudge! Pull off on a narrow shoulder. Same symptoms as before. Cranks strong but won't catch. Checked the battery cables again but all was good. Called the flatbed again. This time he got there within the hour. Car still wont start. At this point I'm wondering if the loose battery cable was a red herring and the problem related to heat. Can coils or relays overheat and then start working again aftfer they cool down? 2hrs later the flatbed delivers the car in front of my house. I try to start it and it starts for 2 seconds and immediately dies. And that's where I am at with it. I'll dive more i to it this week, but still not sure where to start. My gut says its ignition related.
First break down. Down but not out.
Second breakdown a while later. Down for the count.
When my fuel pump relay went bad, the car would start, then die. With some guidance of the guys here, I made a switched jumper that I keep in the tool box in the trunk now, along with 2 spare FP relays.
Thanks for the offer. I was out of cell service during that time, plus we were about 2 hours south of you in the middle of somewhere that felt like nowhere. Tahuya, WA. I had to Google it just to know where I was. Lol.
Originally Posted by Rob Edwards
Yes, Fuel pump relay XVII is identical to the horn relay XIV. And the blower fan XXI and the defroster relay XXII.
Originally Posted by Mrmerlin
Thanks Rob I am away from my puter so don’t have easy access to look up the correct relay part number
Thanks guys. I thought originally Stan was talking about the fuel injection relay which I see now is the same as the horn. The Fuel pump relay on my car is a larger relay. Not sure if it's interchangeable but maybe?
Originally Posted by Landseer
Can be a number of things, but my one of my 84 cars did that intermittently for several years.
Very, very frustrating. Became more and more frequent.
Would die at side of road for no reason. Stumble but not start.
It was the Ljet computer. And had to it looked at twice.
Get known good spare and try it on yours.
Hmmm.. interesting. I'll have to look into that. I agree though that intermittent problems are the worst. Could overheating cause them to fail?
Originally Posted by Petza914
When my fuel pump relay went bad, the car would start, then die. With some guidance of the guys here, I made a switched jumper that I keep in the tool box in the trunk now, along with 2 spare FP relays.
I avtuactu have the same thing in my glove box. And after the first breakdown I installed my spare FP relay which was a new in the box one from Roger, so I'm pretty sure the issue now is not FP relay related.
So last night my wife and I went out to the driveway to pushed the car inside. I decided to try to start it one more time and vroom, started with no issue. Damn. So it seems that after it cools down sufficiently it runs fine. What could that be related to? What if the fuel tank wasn't venting properly? Could excessive fuel pressure cause it to die and not to start?
So last night my wife and I went out to the driveway to pushed the car inside. I decided to try to start it one more time and vroom, started with no issue. Damn. So it seems that after it cools down sufficiently it runs fine. What could that be related to? What if the fuel tank wasn't venting properly? Could excessive fuel pressure cause it to die and not to start?
Vapour lock? hat usually manifests itself after stopping whilst hot, no when cruising along but...?
Set up a few tools to carry around with you to narrow the problem down. When it dies again have a node tester to check injector pulse, and a spark tester to test spark. If your pump is running it is likely one or both of these issues. When you know what’s failing (spark or pulse) you have a diagnostic direction to go. There’s a bit of complex logic through a few relays that power the ecu and ezk.. lots of connections to fail too. if you study the diagrams you should find where the path to spark or pulse (or both) is breaking down.
I recently had an issue with the fuel pump fuse not fitting tightly. The car never died on me but it did have intermittent starting problems. I discovered the problem when the fuse panel happened to be exposed, it was dark, and it wasn't starting. I noticed some sparking from the fuse panel, leaned over while the engine was cranking, and could actually see arcing around the fuse. I pulled the fuse, squeezed the connectors together the add some tension, put the fuse back in and it started right up. No problems at all since, it's been about 2 months.
Almost sounds connector or solder related. The change in temperature could affect either. Continuity checks between components - but as stated earlier, that’s tough when you don’t know if the problem is fuel,fire or air related yet.
A bad solder joint somewhere in the ECU module would not be a surprise. Is the computer module connector firmly seated?
05-06-2018, 05:45 PM
Stuck on the Side of the Road. Any ideas?
