Could anyone give me any leads on what’s wrong with my car? After a few minutes of driving my electronics will start bugging a bit, and they will shut off. While driving they will keep coming back and shutting off until eventually they will shut off for longer periods of time, and i’ll have to stop somewhere and wait for them to randomly come back to life. I’ve hardwired my distributor so my engine no longer shuts off when my car does this. I’ve learned that when the electronics start acting up i can rev is and sometime the electronics will come back for a second and then go dead again, but that is not a sure thing anyways. I’ve ran new fuel lines, new fuel pump, and new alternator any none of those mad any difference so that leads me to think it’s something crazy happening electrically. My key sits pretty firm in my ignition and when i wiggle it around a lot it will keep its place and keep the electronics on so i don’t think it’s the ignition switch, because if that was bad i would think it would just eventually stop working all together at once, but i could be wrong. If anyone has any ideas at all just shoot them my way i would much appreciate anything.

 

Not really. Should be pretty obvious actually.

You have a bad connection somewhere. Some place where one conductive object - a wire, a connector, a switch contact, whatever - is supposed to be touching another, doesn't do so reliably.

"Key firm in ignition" is unrelated. Although, it COULD be the ignition switch. The switch itself is down at the bottom of the column near the firewall, nowhere near the key.

You need to undo this. A problem doesn't just go away because you hacked something else. Put that part of the car back like it belongs and find The Problem.

First place to look, is the Big Red Wires. There are 2 main ones: each has a fusible link protecting it down at the starter. One of those (FLs) could be bad. Could even be just that the nut holding the batt cable to the starter is loose. Once you establish that that's all OK, look at C100, the big bulkhead connector below the brake booster. Inspect the 2 Big Red Wires there for signs of heat. Then if all that's OK, move into the interior of the car. Each of those wires comes to a splice near the fuse block, to distribute battery to all the different things that need it (ign sw, headlight sw, fuse block, etc.) Look at those to see if they've been hot. Then proceed downstream; since one of the symptoms seems to be that the power to the distributor disappears, you probably won't have to go much farther than the ign sw.

Chances are, wherever The Problem is, it will be HOT. There will be visible signs of overheating. Once you find that, then you'll need to apply whatever repair is appropriate to whatever is flaking out. Might need a new piece of wire, or new connectors, or a new ign sw, or whatever.

And resist the temptation to hack ANYTHING, in ANY WAY. No cutting, splicing, "jumpers", re-wiring, "improvements", NONE OF IT. Just fix The Problem.

 

There is a main grounding point on the back of the cylinder head (s) that often gets corroded or loose that will cause all kinds of problems like this, especially after heating up. Check closely those connections on your car first thing. Not easy to get to though. I actually redid mine, unhooked everything back there, cleaned all connectors, and run all the wires up on top. But for sure, check all grounding points.

 

WTF does that mean???

 

Just found that ground, it was finger lose and a bit oily. i’m going to clean it up right and get back to you. Thanks for the information i appreciate it. 👍👍

 

Bad connection as diagnosed above, except, on the ground side of things. The electrons have to go all the way from one batt terminal to the other to do their job, after all.

Amazing how things getting loose causes them not to work.

I hope that clears it up. Always good to get a free fix to a problem that seems to be a head-scratcher even though it turns out to be simple in the end.

 

just took it on a drive and i’m still having the issue. checked the ground and both ends didn’t budge, still very tight. I will say that the problem was less dramatic and the car would shut off and come back very quickly. as opposed to usually it would start shutting off and after a minute it would stay off for long periods of time. So doing that I would say had a positive effect on whatever is wrong. Still having the issue none the less.

 

What other hackery was done during the carb downgrade?
What kind of distributor did you install? New? HEI? used? Cheap china?
Have you done any investigations into what your 12V is doing during the issue? Any DMM measurements?

 

HEI distributor, only reason i hardwired distributor power was to find out of it was an engine or electrical issue. My battery voltage will be normal when issue it happening.

 

12 volts from battery to starter needs to be established as does continuity from the Neg side of the battery to the engine block, what is the condition of those connections?
Fusible links need to be confirmed that they're in good working order.
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