The other day I was slowing down for a turn and my car just died.

I have tried many things, but now cant think of anything else it could be.

I have checked battery and alternator. Checked fuel pressure and spark. Checked distributer and found a wire near the distributer in bad conditition and fixed the wire. Tried to check the timing, but doesnt the car have to be running to check timing? Before the car starts where should the mark be (while trying to start)?

Please help, I have been working on this for a couple days and cant think of anything else it could be.

Thanks,
Adam

 

When the piston reaches TDC on the compression stroke, the notch should be at or around 0 degrees. Pull number 1 spark plug, (passenger side front) crank engine with a socket on the front of the pulley, when you hear air escaping out the plug hole, keep your finger on it till the air quits blowing, this is TDC. with this aligned, you could pull your dist. cap and make sure the rotor is at number 1 or a little bit before it. although if you were driving it when it stalled, it dhould be aligned there. maybe you broke your timing chain? take off your oil fill cap so you can see your rockers and turn the engine over. rockers move?

 

There's a slight possibility it might be your power steering pressure switch, too. Our v6's have 'em, when the system is under high load, this switch closes. When the computer sees the switch close, it raises the rpm's of the motor a couple hundred to help the car to steer easier.

If the switch is shot, it won't turn on, the computer won't raise the engine's idle, and the car could stall. It's not likely this switch could go bad, though.

Has it happened again?

 

Thanks for the help guys. The wire I was talking about was convienently located in between the dist. cap and the mount, it was cut up quite bad. As I said, I fixed it, but after looking at the dist. coil thingy (nice terminology, i know) it seemed rusty. Because the wire was proping up the cap i think that water may have gotten in and screwed it up. What do you think?

grimesjm1, Ill be checking what you said tomorrow, ill keep you posted.

TomP, I cant get it started.

If those dont help, im going to be getting a diff dist from the junk yard tomorrow. Parts stores want $140 new, geez.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

Hey that wire can be replaced.....it goes to the pickup coil. You take the distributor out and lock it in a vice. Just below the drive gear is a roll pin, drive it out. mark everything in relation to each other so it can all be installed the same. take the drive gear off and hit the shaft that the gear sits on, it will drive it out. then there is a small round or square clip holding the pickup on, just grab it with pliers and rip it in half. the new pickup coil will come with a new clip. I don't know how much the coil costs by itself, but i bought a pickup and an ignition module and paid around 40.00. that very well could be your problewm right there. another thing you can do....if you have a fluke meter do a continuity test between both terminals of the pickup, they should be between 500 and 1500 ohms. then do a continuity check from each terminal to ground. both terminals should read infinity on the scale "OL". this procedure as well as the well to replace the distributor i got out of a haynes manual, they have pics too. I asm having the same problems with my car right now and am chasing the same ghosts, and believe it or not the Haynes manual has more in it for the ignition system then my Clymers and my Chiltons manuals. good luck

 

I replaced the dist. but that wasnt the problem, suprizingly. I am probably going to take it to a mechanic tomorrow after I test the coil and if that doesnt work. I hate this, it's so depressing. Stupid car... every time I fix something, something else breaks. Blah!
Attached is a picture of the wire.

 

The old dist.

 

Well, after tearing my engine down (not completely though, dont worry) I have found out that the problem was a loose timing chain which slipped. Im surprized it wasnt the wire or dist.