weird cutting out problem

-
schwinger

schwinger

1972 Dodge Dart Swinger
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
532
Reaction score
177
Location
Fresno, California
I got a weird cutting out problem under load when the engine gets over 195 while im driving in stop n go traffic but on the highway it doesnt do it. Also when it started cutting out i put it in neutral and revved it and it doesnt cutout. what would cause that?
 
schwinger said:
I got a weird cutting out problem under load when the engine gets over 195 while im driving in stop n go traffic but on the highway it doesnt do it. Also when it started cutting out i put it in neutral and revved it and it doesnt cutout. what would cause that?
Click to expand...

I'd post more about your engine and combo, but off the top of my head, i'd say you have a fuel percolation/delivery problem.
 
Yeah, that's a little bit weird. I mean, how much load can you put the engine under in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Sure it's not just a carb stumble, like a bad accelerator pump? I've also seen (when taking off) the ported vacuum rotate the distributor point plate and mess up the point gap, causing a hiccup in the ignition spark. That's usually on a worn distributor or already worn/misadjusted points.
 
Possibly a bad wire from distributor to spark plug. Maybe a foulded plug, carb a little rich.
 
it might be getting a little warm under the hood. all of the hot air might be
choking out your engine but when you put it in neutral and rev it, it has more air
circulation to allow cool air into it as well as driving on the highway. bumper to
bumper traffic sucks i live in a smallish town but when i get caught in it my car
runs hotter than usual. until i get back up to speed.
 
ill try to dive into all that to see whats going on but its a 1988 roller cam 318 engine bored .030 with the stock fast burn 302 heads, edlebrock intake, carter afb 500cfm carb, new stock electronic distributor, stock roller cam, 1.6 roller rocker arms and 2row copper radiator.
 
ok checked spark plugs and come to found out, passenger side bank was running lean so i yanked the carb off and rebuilt it, and ran fatter jets but didnt replace the spark plugs, plugs looked ok, checked the distributor cap and rotor and it was alittle crappy but cleaned it up. Drove the car for 30 minutes and acted up again, pulled into auto zone, got a new cap and rotor, installed it and now it didnt wana start. Decided to check the ignition so i straight wired the wires going to the ballast and **** started right up. so got a ballast resistor at azone and went on my way. 2 fkn hours later it does it again, this time cuts out even in neutral, then dies at a stop light, crank it over alot and still didnt run, move it overpulled it over wondering wtf is going on, let it sit and tried to start it and started up and ran good after that! The only thing i havent checked was the fuel delivery. Ill check the lines to see if something isnt pluging up, Fuel filter doesnt look dirty but ill check that also
 
Try new fuel filter and take bowls off carb and make sure jets are cleaned too
 
schwinger said:
ok checked spark plugs and come to found out, passenger side bank was running lean so i yanked the carb off and rebuilt it, and ran fatter jets but didn't replace the spark plugs, plugs looked ok, checked the distributor cap and rotor and it was a little crappy but cleaned it up. Drove the car for 30 minutes and acted up again, pulled into auto zone, got a new cap and rotor, installed it and now it didn't wana start. Decided to check the ignition so i straight wired the wires going to the ballast and **** started right up. so got a ballast resistor at azone and went on my way. 2 fkn hours later it does it again, this time cuts out even in neutral, then dies at a stop light, crank it over a lot and still didn't run, move it over pulled it over wondering wtf is going on, let it sit and tried to start it and started up and ran good after that! The only thing i haven't checked was the fuel delivery. Ill check the lines to see if something isn't plugging up, Fuel filter doesn't look dirty but ill check that also
Click to expand...


If it's randomly cutting out you need to check the fuel in the carb when it does it. The next time it quits look down in the carb and crack the throttle to see if you get a squirt of fuel if not it could be the sock in the tank is plugging up, fuel pump etc.

I suspect bad coil possibly. When they get hot they can give you the symptoms you are describing. What coil are you running? New or old?

Also check all of your grounds for ignition components.
 
Is your new stock electronic distributor "box" getting a straight 12v?.......it's not sharing the ballast resistor voltage that's going to the coil "+" is it?
 
ok when it stumbled and didnt want to start i checked down the carb and it was getting fuel, thru the accelerator nozzle. Took awhile to start back up but finnaly did and it started up crappy tho but smoothed out and was able to go on my way. ran smooth for 30 minutes and started cutting out when i throttled it more. ran smooth intermittently but when i got off the off ramp it died at the stop. took awhile to start up again but did and i just limped it back home. The coil is an accel 40k volt and its somewhat old. The ignition box is sharing with the ballast resistor also. This problem is driving me F*&^*&%^&%^&&^ crazy!
 
Couple of quick thoughts. Vapor lock maybe, if you have a metal line running from fuel pump to carb make sure
Its not contacting anything hot. Also be sure where its routed along frame its away from exhaust. Secondly if you have a tach unhook it, had a sunpro years ago that was shorting and killing ignition. Even though your getting a fuel shot from accelerator nozzles you could still be dealing with fuel percolation, there may be enough fuel in the accelerator pump to do so.
 
Time for different. Do you have points, factory electronic,MSD?
 
Is the alternator/regulator/ ammeter ,working ? 13 to 14 ,sweet. General rule of thumb: 1 volt.primary ignition= 5,000 secondary at the plug Sounds, like a lack of voltage, to me.
 
Sounds like you are losing ignition power sporadically. Carry some starter fluid to rule out a fuel problem. To catch it in the act, run long wires to a multimeter in the cab to monitor coil+ to engine ground as you drive. You might be losing IGN supply thru the ignition key and bulkhead connector (common problem).

Another possibility is a poor ground on the ignition module. Are you relying on a rusty sheet metal screw (like most readers do), despite the constant suggestions to run a dedicated ground. This is true whether the old Mopar box or a GM HEI module. Even an MSD box requires a good ground to the engine block. Always carry a spare ignition module in the trunk.
 
A lot of carburetor cars are doing this now. It is do to the fuel. The way to get rid of this problem is to run a fuel return. If yo check any 87 mopar last of the carburetors. They have three fittings on the fuel filter. The one is a return this keeps newer fuel from coming to a stand still under pressure and vaporizing and allows the floats to keep working properly. The reason your car starts hard is do to flooding . when you rev it the fuel starts moving and the problem goes away. Depending on what year your car is you may be able to utilize your vent system and add a fuel neck vent from a 70 back. If you need help doing this I can give you some info and have fuel necks.

I have had this same problem with cars that have had pumps replaced with later units. This has become an ongoing problem. Newer pumps fit older motors but are made tor returns of the newer cars Keepping the fuel moving prevents this from hapening. Steve
 
I'm putting all my money that it's ignition. Vapor lock = out of fuel. When ignition boxes start going south, many times this is exactly the symptoms. Me too....I'd toss in a points distributor (or plug in an extra ignition box from a donor car) just to see what happens.

BTW, am I wrong when I say the ignition box should be getting a straight 12v feed, not ballast resistor voltage?
 
schwinger said:
ok when it stumbled and didnt want to start i checked down the carb and it was getting fuel, thru the accelerator nozzle. Took awhile to start back up but finnaly did and it started up crappy tho but smoothed out and was able to go on my way. ran smooth for 30 minutes and started cutting out when i throttled it more. ran smooth intermittently but when i got off the off ramp it died at the stop. took awhile to start up again but did and i just limped it back home. The coil is an accel 40k volt and its somewhat old. The ignition box is sharing with the ballast resistor also. This problem is driving me F*&^*&%^&%^&&^ crazy!
Click to expand...

I'm not recommending buying a new coil, however if you have another one laying around try it. Take it for a drive and see if your problem still exists. Another possibility is the pick up coil in the dizzy is going south.

Anytime I have experienced this it is quite random. You might drive ten miles and it quits or you might drive 50 or 100 and it quits.

It could be gas related too, but the way you describe it makes me lean towards coil or pick up coil, they get hot and cut out, cool down and fire up until they overload again.

Anyway it's something else to consider, keep us posted.
 
My money is on the coil, my ramcharger set for a while and my older son needed to use it and as soon as it got up to temp he thought it ran out of gas and parked it and called me, I had my wife drive me to the truck and it fired right up and as I was getting close to home (about 8 miles) it started stumbling, but I made it home and shut it off.. then tryed to start it!! no start! I put a good ecu on still nothing.. I put a used coil on and it fired right up, that coil is still on it and I have had no problems in a year.. Just a thought, like some one said here when the coil warmed up it would not do it's job, but when it was cold it did start and do fine.. hope this helps and you get this problem behind you soon.
 
Its electronic dist. abodybomber and the voltage is at 14v running and i decided to replace it with another one just for the hell of it! thank you orielys lifetime warenty! I checked the resistance out the coil and it was 1.6 ohms on the primary side and 9.1k ohms on the secondary which i believe is bad but i have another coil that i will install to see if that takes away the problem bad sport. Also i'll check the fuel line going from the pump to the back to see if its not close to the exhaust dubob and i am running a sunpro tach also. I do have a later style fuel pump for an 88 dodge diplomat which my engine was out of, which last time i check it read 7 psi but that was a year ago but ill recheck that again. And my fuel vapor line going to the charcoal canister is mest up at the tank so i'll fix that up and get it reconnected however its been mesed up for a very long time but i'll go ahead and fix it and im working on a 72 dodge dart oldmanmopar. I'll clean up the grounds on the ignition box to see if that helps.

"BTW, am I wrong when I say the ignition box should be getting a straight 12v feed, not ballast resistor voltage?" quoted by cudavert

I wonder about that also if it should get the straight 12 volts or not cudavert but i ran with it hooked up to the ballast for a long time and had no problems
 
Did your problem exist back in the heat of the summer? Can you try a ride with the hood off?
 
no actually it never had this problem and i drove it 4000 miles round trip to minnesota last year in the summer time for the powercruise event and didnt have any problems.
 
schwinger said:
I wonder about that also if it should get the straight 12 volts or not cudavert but i ran with it hooked up to the ballast for a long time and had no problems
Click to expand...

See if your electronic box blue wire is getting full battery voltage. See how the blue wire is getting its POWER ON feed BEFORE the ballast resistor?

get-attachment.asp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top