Car died while old lady driving it...

[Poodlehead]

Hey Folks,

I've got an 87 DX automatic that has been running great until today. She went to the bank drive through and when leaving it died and wouldn't start again. She said it would turn over and then made a weird noise and stopped. I couldn't get a better definition than 'weird noise'... :( Got it towed home. I tried starting it a few hours later and it did start and ran for a little bit but real rough and died. I tried starting it again and this time it turned over several times and then sort of silent backfired as in making the engine stop turning over real quick. I was concerned the timing belt broke, but it's sounds like it has good compression when it turns over so I think I'm OK there.

I popped the hood and noticed a small split in vacuum line #17 where it connects to a metal line on the left fenderwell. I cut the split off and put it back on, but no difference. I put a little gas in the carb and that didn't help either. In the past, I've noticed once it warms up, when you first start it, the idle sometimes is inconsistent. It doesn't happen that often so I haven't worried about it, but wondering if that is related.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Pat

[Oldblueaccord]

Try a new set of plugs NGK's cheapys and start there. Verify you have spark while there out and go from there. Old lady might have flooded it cranking the hell out of it at Wally world.


wp

[Dr_Snooz]

My mom once drove my car and called from the side of the road to tell me it had broken down. She also described a "weird noise" from the back of the car.

We drove out to rescue her and found that she had run it out of gas. The "weird noise" was the fuel pump struggling to get more gas!

Sorry. I don't have any suggestions. Just an amusing anecdote. Hope yours is as easy to fix.

:tongue:

[xxxfrankensteinxxx]

pull the plugs let the gas fumes air out she'll run again

[frantik]

ok i must be dyslexic cause i thought this thread was about an old lady dying while driving a car :rofl:

[race12001]

lol only u frantik

[markmdz89hatch]

i feel like a broken record sayin it, but check the fuel filters. There's two on these cars. One in front of the tank under the car, and another up on the firewall under the hood.

There seems to be an epidemic of clogged up fuel filters for us carb'd guys here on the board lately.

Give it a shot, it's a whopping $10 for both, and an hour out of your time.

[lostforawhile]

i feel like a broken record sayin it, but check the fuel filters. There's two on these cars. One in front of the tank under the car, and another up on the firewall under the hood.

There seems to be an epidemic of clogged up fuel filters for us carb'd guys here on the board lately.

Give it a shot, it's a whopping $10 for both, and an hour out of your time.it's the dam ethanol. it is such a good solvent it cleans the 20 years of gunk out of the tank and it clogs your fuel filter.

[Poodlehead]

I don't think it's a fuel problem. It died all of a sudden plus I put a little gas in the carb and that didn't make a difference. I tested the spark last night with one of those inline Harbor Freight testers and the spark seemed weak. Tonight I pulled a plug and it was clean but the gap was at .055. I regapped it to .043, grounded the plug and checked the spark. It seemed like it wasn't sparking consistently and was weak when it did spark. I ohmed out the coil and the primary was slightly high, 1.6 ohms (spec = 1.215-1.485). The secondary between terminal A and the output terminal was a little high too, 11.86K (spec = 11.074K-11.526K). Terminals B-D was dead nuts on, 2.2K.

I was going to get a new coil at AutoBone, but it ohmed out the same as my original coil, slightly high. Tomorrow I'll change the plugs and take a closer look at the cap and rotor. I ohmed out the coil wire and it was 4K. I didn't check the rest, but the car is all stock with only a little over 100K on the clock and been running fine until all of a sudden... Vacuumn line 17 was off on the right fender well (split) when I looked it over yesterday. I fixed that, but I'm wondering if some sort of backfire or something could have caused it to split and maybe screwed up something else... There is too much crap under the hood... :)

[lostforawhile]

I don't think it's a fuel problem. It died all of a sudden plus I put a little gas in the carb and that didn't make a difference. I tested the spark last night with one of those inline Harbor Freight testers and the spark seemed weak. Tonight I pulled a plug and it was clean but the gap was at .055. I regapped it to .043, grounded the plug and checked the spark. It seemed like it wasn't sparking consistently and was weak when it did spark. I ohmed out the coil and the primary was slightly high, 1.6 ohms (spec = 1.215-1.485). The secondary between terminal A and the output terminal was a little high too, 11.86K (spec = 11.074K-11.526K). Terminals B-D was dead nuts on, 2.2K.

I was going to get a new coil at AutoBone, but it ohmed out the same as my original coil, slightly high. Tomorrow I'll change the plugs and take a closer look at the cap and rotor. I ohmed out the coil wire and it was 4K. I didn't check the rest, but the car is all stock with only a little over 100K on the clock and been running fine until all of a sudden... Vacuumn line 17 was off on the right fender well (split) when I looked it over yesterday. I fixed that, but I'm wondering if some sort of backfire or something could have caused it to split and maybe screwed up something else... There is too much crap under the hood... :)are you sure it's not the module in the dizzy? mine did the same thing. you are on the right track,spark problem,should be easy to fix.

[Poodlehead]

When you say the module, are you talking about the ignitor unit?

I put a new cap and rotor on this evening with the new plugs and it fired right up. After a few minutes it slowly started running a little rougher and didn't want to idle (I've had an erratic idling problem before) at all. I will start it up in the morning and see if it's smooth or not. If it is a temp related problem, does that sound like a common ignitor problem? Thanks for the reply and sorry I didn't respond sooner. I missed your reply earlier.

[lostforawhile]

When you say the module, are you talking about the ignitor unit?

I put a new cap and rotor on this evening with the new plugs and it fired right up. After a few minutes it slowly started running a little rougher and didn't want to idle (I've had an erratic idling problem before) at all. I will start it up in the morning and see if it's smooth or not. If it is a temp related problem, does that sound like a common ignitor problem? Thanks for the reply and sorry I didn't respond sooner. I missed your reply earlier.if the ignition gets worse with the engine heating up it's likely an igniter problem as they get heat sensitive when they are going bad.

[Poodlehead]

Problem solved!

Dumbshit me forgot to connect the vertical vacuum line underneath the air cleaner when I put it back on so that's why it was 'missing'.

So the car basically quit running all at once due to a combination of the plugs, cap and rotor. It would start and sputter, then die. Of course the old lady had been driving it for a while so it probably had a miss long before that... :) Thanks all for the info!