Dies after 2 miles, why?

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jimmyray

jimmyray

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I have a 73 Duster with a 408, FABO ignition and TQ. Had it all together several years, runs great, low 12's on low octane pump gas. Been running fine for 10,000 miles. I recently have been keeping it in storage, only driving it once every 2-3 weeks.

Last weekend, I primed the carb with the electric fuel pump, pumped the gas 3 or 4 times, and she fired right up. I let her idles for 5 minutes or so while I moved the other car into storage and closed everything up.

I got on the road, about 1-2 miles from the storage location, 50 mph, and she dies. like she lost fuel completely or lost ignition. Coasted her into a gas station, fiddled around for 5 minutes, and she started back up, and after 3 miles of very rough running, she straightened out and ran fine for the next 30miles. Back into storage that night.

Went and got her today, almost an exact repeat of today, and she died with 100 feet of the same place at 50 mph as last time, spit back a few times, and managed to get her started while still rolling.

I had her in the garage for about 7 hours. Fired her up for a drive around town, and had an exact repeat again, died about 2 miles from cranking her up, and would not fire! Pulled her off the road, pulled the air cleaner, an had plenty of fuel coming from the accelerator pump, with fumes in the primary swirling around. After 5 minutes, whe fired up and I drove home, no other problems!

I am fairly sure it is an ignition problem, but swapping the ballast made no difference. Anybody experienced this before? I have replace the fuel filter, (just to be sure).

Note that she has run fine for 3 years, and never exhibited this problem. I have not changed anything.
 
BTW, made it up to Roleau, SK (aka Dog River) in May to see the Corner Gas set, the town et al. SK is very scenic, you can see for miles! Loved it!
 
needle and float in carb are sticking closed, takes two miles to use up the gas in the bowl so the car dies, heat pressure from the fuel pump and the slow flow of fuel into the carb free up the float and/or needle and seat allowing the car to run again, when you park it the fuel evaporates and they get sticky again probably due to gunk and/or varnish, a good carb clean and rebuild should fix it
 
caferacerx said:
needle and float in carb are sticking closed, takes two miles to use up the gas
Click to expand...

Sorry nice try. Not a chance it'll run that far, that long

I would not rule out fuel problems, but this sounds more like the classic "bad coil heating up"
 
Usually that is the first sign of a bad coil. When they get hot, they stop working. When it cools down, they fire right up.
 
I will test the coil today. Strange thing is, after it "rests" for 5 minutes or so, it runs fine until the next cool down cycle. After the last go around, I drove it for several miles (60?) with no issues.

I have had an Accell coil go bad before, though, and come to think of it, it did act similar.
 
coil or pickup. Both can be tested easilly enough with a multi-meter.
 
If the coil is bad give Don a call and see if he will make good on it. I'm running FBO ignition also.
 
I changed the coil out for a MSD Blaster 2, and it runs noticeably better. Smoother idle, smoother cruise, fires easier, and even idled cold, a first for my non-choked TQ.

Bad news is, it is still doing it. I took my spark plug attachment that goes between the plug and the wire, and light when spark is sent to that cylinder. It definitely is NOT getting spark. It seems like by removing the cap, jiggling the wires, etc, it makes it fire back up. So it may be the pickup or the wiring, or still could be the box, or perhaps even the ignition switch?
 
jimmyray said:
I changed the coil out for a MSD Blaster 2, and it runs noticeably better. Smoother idle, smoother cruise, fires easier, and even idled cold, a first for my non-choked TQ.

Bad news is, it is still doing it. I took my spark plug attachment that goes between the plug and the wire, and light when spark is sent to that cylinder. It definitely is NOT getting spark. It seems like by removing the cap, jiggling the wires, etc, it makes it fire back up. So it may be the pickup or the wiring, or still could be the box, or perhaps even the ignition switch?
Click to expand...


Yep, i would change everything if you can. MSD E curve dist are nice, yes they are over $300 but you need no box, its all built in the dist.

Or the al cheap o way would be to get a point dist and run that. You might be surprise how well a point dist with new points work and its so simple to wire up and so little can go wrong--till the points start to wear out--after thousands of miles

Now it could just be the pick up in the dist that is bad or a bad wire that opens when how
 
Remove you gas cap and test drive again.

If it run good......the gas tank "vent" is full of bug, spider,dirt, dust exc.
 
Hi-new guy here, this is actually my first post.
My car did the EXACT same thing. After chasing what I thought were ignition troubles I found it was actually my fuel pump. You said you have an electric pump, is it a holley? I had a holley blue pump that would overheat and die after my first 5-10 min driving. Let it sit 5 min and I could go another 15-20 min and it would die it again. When I tore the pump apart to rebuild it it looked like crap, so I took it completely apart and the inside of the pump was rusted and corroded, I assume from moisture in my gas. The pump was only 3-4 years old, but any moisture that gets in the gas would sit in the pump as it is the lowest point of my fuel system.
Hope this helps.
 
Turns out it was a short in the 2 prong connector that connects to the distributor. One side read about 0.9 ohms from the connector to the ECU, but the other side read between 5 and 30 ohms, depending on how I wiggled the wire. I cut out the old one, and soldered in a new on, and problem solved!

Incidentally, the 408 idles better than ever (literally), and is smoother at all RPM's. I suppose the connector has been bad for years, it just deteriorated to the point where it finally dies.

Thanks for all of the help!
 
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