My son has my 1988 Formula 350 now but I live in Ontario Canada..(25 min, from Buffalo) and my son lives just outside Vancouver British Columbia Canada.
This is one weird problem that has us baffled.
The car will run okay for awhile then the tach will flutter or not work at times and then the car will start running on the battery...volt meter starts to drop to "0" and dies. Charge it up and its fine. The car may run fine for hours and then cuts out as above.
Had him check and replace the dist. cap (had a crack) and put a new OEM ignition module...had the alternator checked and was okay....had the battery checked and was okay. The car has 54,000 miles (86,000 km) on it.
Its very difficult to diagnose it over the phone.
Need all the help in this matter. My son will try all ideas but the last recourse would be to take it to the dealership which means throw parts at it philosophy as we all know.
Help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Bill

 

Im a kid as well, i had a somewhat similar situation but free things i would try is going over the grounds with a wire brush. Then checking the fusible links on the power block by the radiator.

 

post #7 and # 10 seem like good suggestions in this thread

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...ge-issues.html

 

Agreed, it's obviously either not charging, or if it is then the charge current isn't getting to the battery.

When the dash gauge starts to read low, get it running, get a multimeter and measure the volts at the batt terminals, then the alt terminal. See if they're different - shouldn't be of course.

If you've had the alt and batt tested ok, it's got to be a cable/terminal/ground problem.

 

I agree. Clean every connection at battery, starter, alternator and ground.

 

Thanks for all the replies so far. I was suspecting grounds also but with your comments so far as where to look; it will help my son to sort it out as to where to look. Its very frustrating for me not to be there to help him due to distance.
Any other areas to look at ???? Its been 4 years since he has had the Formula and my mind is getting a little foggy to picture the detail areas . I did most of the work myself but its hard to diagnose problems like this unless you are there to personally see the areas in question.
Thanks again for all the replies so far.
Bill

 

I had a similar problem with my car. It was a bad negative Battery cable. Once I changed it my problem was solved try that