LA 318 Dying when put in gear and high idle issue solved!

[AJ/FormS]

But yes, please continue to tell me how my findings, that worked, are wrong. I'm thoroughly amused.

This is not the point.
The point is that some newbe is gonna find this thread using the search feature, and rush out and waste his time , going down a rabbit-trail, resetting his factory reluctor gap that I know as a FACT, will run anywhere from zero gap to .030 and more.
I know it as a fact because I have tried it.
Or worse, newbe will buy a different distributor.
Look, your engine may be idling at 800 today, this week, or next month, but one day it will quit because you tried to put a bandaid on a cut that requires stitches.
Or now that we have got to know you better, possibly you are withholding information; whether knowingly or not, no one can say.
I've been tuning Mopars since 1970, and in all those years, I have never ,not once, seen a reluctor gap do what you say yours was doing. Now, I get that it just might be, that by some oversight of the devils in the electronics, that I never got to meet the one in a million that exhibited such a symptom. OK, I get that.
But by the same token, I have even tried to create the problem, and was unsuccessful.
But I have seen several, to many cars, and motorcycles, and even lawnmowers,lol, that stalled below a certain rpm/throttle position, due to other reasons.
I guess; time will tell.

 

[AJ/FormS]

No, I've said my piece, you can have the last word honey,.

 

[Randall Hendricks]

My finding is solid. Period. My fuel mixture was the same. My idle set screw the same. Timing the same. Only thing that was different was pickup gap. Yet somehow that wasn’t the problem according to you. But it worked. So magically it just started working right? No. Stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself.

 

[iScamp]

My finding is solid. Period. My fuel mixture was the same. My idle set screw the same. Timing the same. Only thing that was different was pickup gap. Yet somehow that wasn’t the problem according to you. But it worked. So magically it just started working right? No. Stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself.

Hey Randall, you might want to try returning the gap back to previous setting, see how it runs and then try 0.005" again. I think that's called ABA testing - make a change from A to B, then go back to A. I've been having distributor problems off and on, so keep us posted please.

 

[goldduster318]

I believe your fix - the ECU can only pick up the signal from this 2-wire magnetic pickup if the voltage generated by the magnetic field is high enough for it to be detected. This is the problem with variable reluctance sensors such as the one in the distributor or an ABS wheel speed sensor on some modern cars where it will rust jack and then the gap will be too big and you will have signal dropout at low speeds. Essentially, the ECU was just thinking that the engine wasn't turning and therefore wasn't creating spark.

A fairly good chance that you'll be alright here now, but if you have an issue in the future it's going to be either this pickup or the ignition box. Hard to say which.

Glad you have it fixed.

 

[Randall Hendricks]

I believe your fix - the ECU can only pick up the signal from this 2-wire magnetic pickup if the voltage generated by the magnetic field is high enough for it to be detected. This is the problem with variable reluctance sensors such as the one in the distributor or an ABS wheel speed sensor on some modern cars where it will rust jack and then the gap will be too big and you will have signal dropout at low speeds. Essentially, the ECU was just thinking that the engine wasn't turning and therefore wasn't creating spark.

A fairly good chance that you'll be alright here now, but if you have an issue in the future it's going to be either this pickup or the ignition box. Hard to say which.

Glad you have it fixed.

Thank you, I appreciate that a lot. I too am glad I got it fixed.