So I got up this morning started my car (ran fine) went to 7/11 she I is around the corner from my house to get gas. I hop back in the car (runs fine) and start heading to school. I get about 1 mile or so from 7/11 and stop at a stop light. The car is keeping its idle then out of no where with no signs cuts off. I try starring the car and can't get it to start again. I get the good old motor turning over but no actual fir up and starting so I can go on my way. Any ideas on what this could be? I'm clueless...
basic troubleshooting starts like so. pull the coil wire and hold it about half an inch away from the terminal to check spark while the engine is cranking. remove air cleaner and check for fuel supply by moving the throttle linkage and verifying that the accellerator pump is squirting fuel. further troubleshooting stems from those results.
My battery is now good and drained, but I bypassed the solenoid and got the same result and I'm for sure getting fuel
All of my spark plugs and cables are new, my coil was purchased recently (not that that matters because they go out all the time like The solenoid) I'm just confused, it's probably something simple
Take off your air cleaner so you can look down the throat of the carb. Try pressing the throttle assy and see if you can see a squirt of fuel shoot down the throat of the carb. See any? If not...it could be that your needle got stock shut in your carb and you're not getting any fuel. Sometimes this can be cured with hitting the carburetor firmly with the handle of a screwdriver to get the needle to pop loose. Maybe a clogged fuel filter? If you've got fuel going in, I'd say then try pulling the plug wire from the distributor that goes to the ignition coil. I usually just use a screwdriver to jump across the starter relay (the two posts that are towards the front). Hold the plug wire you just pulled close to the center post where it came from and see if you see any sparks trying to jump across. See any? Be sure to put the plug wire back on before you do anything else. Do you have points or electronic ignition? If you still use points, the points could have gotten stuck shut (or open). Pull off the distributor cap and inspect your points. Make sure they're opening/closing correctly and the right gap is set.
all I was getting at is that you need to VISUALLY confirm that those things are present, is all. New parts are defective all the time with the latest quality control slipping away due to off-shore parts production. These older types of engines are not really as complex as some who aren't well versed in their mechanics would believe. Air.. spark.. and fuel is all they need and each system can be broken down seperately to better troubleshoot things without needlessly throwing cash at parts. My recommendation would be to step back for a moment.. take a deep breath.. start over and use the good old process of elimination to pinpoint the system at fault here. If the tailpipe doesn't have a potato or banana shoved into it(you'd probably smell it and get hungry by now) or the air cleaner got wrapped in a plastic bag(fairly obvious someones playing tricks on you when you pop the hood).. you can pretty much narrow it down to fuel or spark.
Back in the day my problem was always a clogged fuel filter, especially the one that screwed directly into the carb, if I put fuel in I usually could go about a mile before it quit and I had to unscrew the filter and empty it out, put it back on and it was ready to go for quite a few miles then.
X2! You also have to use a compatible coil for the Duraspark ignition! The wrong coil may work, but won't last long or will kill the module!
My timing chain did this to me a few months after I bought the car. The plastic gear sheared off about half of its teeth. Ran fine prior to and on a decel approaching a stop sign, shut off and wouldn't restart. For the record, it won't have spark if the cam doesn't turn.
So I called in the cavalry aka my grandpa and we jump the engine and it starts up like nothing was wrong. He told me there must be an air fuel issue and that I needed to tune the dials on the carb. We changed it so now the left knob is at 1and 1/2 turns while the right is at 2 turns. I am still running the stock 2bbl carb but it has been rebuilt. I want to double check and make sure that we have done the correct thing. Sound right to anyone?
Oh and Thank you everyone for all of the trouble shooting tips. I tried them all yet everything appeared fine. I will try these tips forever now lol
Possible, but doubtful. Sounds like the conditions that caused your issue are not present at the moment. If it does it again, you need to isolate what you are missing, ie: fuel, air, spark or cam timing. You need all of them to run. Good luck, maybe it was just a water pocket in the fuel or trash.
this doesnt sound right. when an electronic ignition is going bad it will work when cold then once it heats up it will shut off and not work until it cools off again. i dont know what you have for an ignition system. tell us what you have and we should be able to tell you the right thing to replace. you mention that you replaced the coil be cause they are always failing. that's not true. coils should last at least 100,000 miles. as said above the wrong coil can damage a ignition module. i think this is exactly what happened
My set up is exactly the same as it was purchased off the lot. The changes I have made would be the electronic control module because the one in the car when I received it had melted and been inhabited by wasps. Unfortunately the module is from the mighty pull apart. Taking into account what you all told me, I will have to change out the module and possibly the coil so the match and the vehicle performs properly.
