Well...my car started dying hard on me today. Definitely an ignition problem. Without warning, the entire engine would die as though I keyed off. No other electrical system appears to be experiencing any problems. It got really, really bad and I tracked it back to either the coil or distributor. I replaced the coil on a whim hoping things would get better, but nope. I then bought a new Ignition Control Module & Pick-Up Coil. Everything was going smoothly until I went to replace the old Pick-Up Coil. I pulled up on the magnet (timer core, trigger wheel...whatever you want to call it) and it shattered...The old Pick-Up Coil looked absolutely baked. The previous owner of this car let it redline [edit: "redline" on the temp gauge] about twice a day for a year or two and I guess it screwed up even the distributor electronics. The Pick-Up Coil plastic felt like a damp graham cracker.

This magnet looks like a part that I cannot purchase separately. If I cannot find one locally or pull it from the junkyard it looks like I'm set for a new distributor. Well...at least I've now found the source of my inexplicable code 43. Feed the ECM incorrect info and of course it's gonna go nuts from time to time...

Anyone know where I can find one?

 

Would that be GM P/N 10495802?

 

Very nearly...The P/N you gave sits just underneath the magnetic trigger wheel. What I need is a metal disk ~1-13/16" in diameter and ~5/16" tall. It has what looks like eight poles spread around its circumference. There was also a copper shield around the entire assembly which was damaged as well. Do you have the number for that piece, also?

 

I ended up having to pull a salvage yard distributor. I wanted to pop in a coil-in-cap model, but didn't know if it would fit and I really just wanted my ride back. I still need to set the timing, but the car is running about how it did before the ICM started dying. I can't be off by more than a few degrees. I have a really good eye for angles and popped the replacement distributor as close as I could to the position of the old one.

The added benefit of the replacement salvaged unit is it looks to have been recently rebuilt. New Pick-Up Coil & ICM...so I returned my Autozone coils & ICM and came out with a net loss of only about $30.

It's gonna bug me until I get a timing light on it, though...

 

Could this problem cause a code 51 aswell? Because I am having a hard time finding the problem but when the engine is running and I clear the codes with Diacom it pops a code 43 and the code 51 doesn't come back till I shut the car off..?? Maybe I know where to look next..

 

Code 43=Low voltage at electronic spark timing circuit
Code 51=PROM error

I'd recommend first reseating the PROM and if that doesn't work try pulling an identical PROM from a junkyard ECM, clearing the codes and seeing if that fixes it.

I kind of doubt the distributor could cause these problems, but if you want to rule it out anyway, pull the distributor cap and unplug the Pick-Up Coil inside the distributor from the ignition Control Module and measure the coil from one lead to the other. It should be ~800 Ohms. Next, measure from one of the Pick-Up Coil leads to the metal base of the distributor. You should get an infinite resistance. ANything out of these specs is by more than a little bit indicates a bad Pick-Up Coil.

...and from driving it today, I'd say the new distributor really is kicking the crap out of the old one. I don't even have correct spark timing and it has MUCH better throttle response and a bit more power -- and no ESC codes yet! I can also rev it up to 6500 without it breaking up like it did.

 

Yet again (unfortunately) there are more developments in this crappy story. First, let me state that the old distributor was bad electrically and the new one is making the car run better overall. That said, the stalling problem is still there. I've been going back & forth in my mind and for a moment I thought it was a bad alternator, but I'd never seen one fail in the way this would have had to to cause my stalling.

Today, the car stalled 2 or 3 times during the end of a 20 minute drive. It does seem to do much worse when the engine is hot. If I'm going down the interstate and the coolant temps (and the engine compartment, for that matter) are <180*, this problem does not occur. It only seems to happen when I'm at low revs in traffic when the car is >200*. I did notice a very interesting correlation on my drive home. The car began to stall and barely caught itself. I turned my stereo off because I still wasn't convinced it was innocent here. I drove fine for about 1/2 a mile and turned the stereo back on. The moment the amps turned on, the car stuttered & died. Lately I've also seen the battery voltage ALL OVER the place. anywhere from 10.5V to 14V with no real correlation to current draw. Reference this post of mine for more info:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=324353

Does this look like an alternator which is failing and intermittently conducting during failure? The only part of this which makes no sense is when the amp kills the engine, the music is still clear. I would expect the amps to cut out or something...Could it occur that my 0 gauge wire has so little resistance that my audio amps are sucking all of the current out of the charging system and my factory wiring does not have enough to keep the engine up? I had the alternator load tested and the voltage & current looked fine, but it was tested during a time when the car was acting OK.

[edit:] New Info --

I checked and the battery was ~1/2 liter low on water. Most of this was split between two cells, but all were at least a little low. I know this will reduct the current capacity by a bit. I ran a few tests and one strange thing I notice is when I turn the A/C on, the voltage drops from 14 to 13. That seems like a bit too much loading to me. I have to REALLY crank the bass up to make the audio system drop the charging system by that much. Any thoughts?

 

I believe I have solved at least part of this problem...

I had previously grounded the living crap out of all the components in question, but didn't upgrade the alternator output which runs to the battery (+). I did this in 4 AWG yesterday and upon starting the car this morning, I had a solid +14.7V (with a meter) @ the battery. I turned on the A/C and the volt gauge on the dash dipped low for a second and then came up to what looked like ~14V. I turned everything on (lights, A/C, stereo, etc...) and the volt gauge was above 13V if I was at any RPM >= 1000.

The interesting thing is that I stopped at a 7-11 and when I went to start it again, it barely got that first revolution out of the starter. It's like it was starved for current. I thought it was because I wasn't giving the battery a chance to charge with all my accessories on. So...I drove around a bit with everything off and still the same.

I believe I need a new battery.

 

Just an update for anyone with similar problems:

I did a drive test today which normally would have left the car dying at least a few times during the day. I cruised around the city with the A/C on and the stereo bumpin hard enough...

The car never died, but at one point at a stop light, I watched the RPMs quickly dip down (~50 RPM) & then up in response to kick drum beats coming from the subs. The battery still seems to have just BARELY enough current to start the car.

During the breakdown from a RATM track where the kick drum taps out quarter notes for ~15 seconds, I watched the volt gauge hold for the first 1/2 of the beat, then slowly dip to ~11V for the last 7 seconds or so. Once it was over, the gauge returned to about 14V.

Looks to me like the battery is half dead and the alternator cannot keep up with the stereo. I'll report back after I get the new battery hopefully next week. I found a totally PHAT battery which looks like a close drop-in:

Autocraft Titanium 34/78-4. It boasts 1000 CA @ 32*, 800 CA @ 0* and 115 minutes reserve capacity. It's about $75 at Advance Auto Parts:

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...=SEARCHRESULTS

According to Advance Auto, our cars are set up for Group Size: 75 batteries. The battery I found above is a Group Size: 78 which is ~1" longer according to the chart:

http://www.rtpnet.org/~teaa/bcigroup.html