alright, so, i posted once before about my car dying randomly. Dying as in turning off, not just "cough cough, sputter sputter, die" it would simply quit. Once however, it quit, then came right back, kinda like i push-started it. Neway, I put a fuel pressure tester on the car, gave me 40psi when the pump primed. Then i got 35 PSI when running. and good fortune had it, that when i had the guage on it, the car died, no fuel psi drop, stayed steady at 35, then 40 psi when the engine died. Pulled off the plug wires, then pulled the cap. There was some corrosion on the # 1 spark plug lead and terminal on cap, all the others were perfect, the inside terminals looked decent also, and gap between them and the rotor would be within "my specs", carbon tracking was to aminimum, all in all, w/ the exception of the #1 everything was clean. So i pulled the ignition module and took it to o'riley, where it tested good, so icame back, reinstalled, and parked the car again.

Now the thought is, computer, or pickup coil. The coil could be bad also, but can't be sure, i'm not willing to drive the car anywhere, as it could break down and not restart at any time, so i'm going to pull the computer to see if a dealership will test it for me. Then i'll reinstall if it's ok, and dig into the pickup coil.

The only time i had a pickup coil fail on me before, it would have trouble providing the engine with spark above 4000k or so. In lower RPM's everything was great, up high, it was horrible, spittin, and sputterin, but never died. Finally changed that, and all problems were better, so i wonder if it's the same part again, but this time, it simply failed, didn't just slowly die. Hmm, i wonder.

Give me your imput guys.

As far as chasis grounds, the one on the back of the engine is connected, negative battery terminal is connected, and i think the third one is probably good, but i'll have to look, can't remember what it is right now, and couldn't remember what it was when i was looking on the car earlier. Hopefully we can get this solved soon.

 

Random dieing is often a ignition pick up problem.

 

well, now i'm pissed...

So i decide to tear into her replacing the pickup coil, so, i get the distributor out, drive out the roll pin, and essentially get everything good and done, put it all back together, get a light on it, good timing plus a couple degrees, get it set and good, drive it around, no problems. Well, i come back into the shop to clean up, and there's a small washer and keep that i found laying in my parts, i knew exactly where it goes (right above the distributor gear), so now, i've gotta tear her all down again and replace that part. HOwever, now the freakin engine is hot, so i've gotta wait like 30 minutes before things will be cold enough i can even touch them.

On the up side, while i don't wantto sound to positive, i think the pu-coil might have been the culprit, but only time is going to tell. Hopefully i can get this thing wrapped up by 5 so i can get my butt home to have a beer and relax.

 

well, the problems definately aren't gone even though they appeared to be. I pulled the distributor back out, replaced the washer and castle above the gear at the bottom of the shaft, and re-installed the unit. Timed everything to 12 Degrees, and thought i'd be on my way, unfortunately, the problems returned, this time however, the car seeemd more like it was shuttering, trying to stay alive, than it did the first time. Hmmmm, wonder what strange issues i'm having now.

 

The only time I have seen realy hard to nail down engine dieing problems is more than one thing is wrong.
When I said ignition pick up problem I forgot our cars have coils, I was thinking like a grove and a crank sencor.
Like you have a bad coil and a nearly broken or loose wire(not spark plug wire).
Or an ignition problem with a vaccume leak.
Vacuum leaks just screw every thing up, then you get a few misses from the ignition at cruse then you loose vacuum and go lean, your rpm's go down real fast and bam your engine is dead.

 

My 89 camaro W/V6 kept dying on me when I was driving,It died about 6 times on the 10 mile trip home from work.It did not give me any trouble codes,It was the set of wires that plug into the coil,the connector was bad,I had the car running and I wiggled the wires to the coil and the car died,I unplugged the connector and noticed the wires going into the connector were distorted,like they had gotten to hot,Imagine that since they put the coil above the exhaust.
I cut off the connector,pushed the bare wires into the holes and and have not had any problems with it ,I will be going out to the wrecking yard on Saturday to get the correct conector.
It is always something simple.
Good luck
Bob

 

Check your wires, and your coil... I'd replace the coil, myself

 

guess it's possible i got a bad coil last year, dunno. Do know that i was getting spark from the coil, which makes me think it's not the coil. Although, can't be sure w/o more testing. Might test things a litle more today after work, and see what i get. Least the hard part of coil replacement is done (getting rid of the damn rivits)

 

My 85 had accident in front of car.
That eventually caused a grounding wire to cross while shutting car off.
As in the engine continued to run! with ignition key in off position.
Solved by bringing to a genius.
Prerviously solved by me pulling coil wire to shut off!
Try new coil as in ya can just lay it aside to operate while driving, then return if problem still present.
I think you have a frayed weather worn wire that is causing problems after it gets "heated up" by energy or exhaust.
The wire is coroded internally, I suspect.

 

alright, so here's the update.

The dying while at idle is fixed, kinda... I must have bumped the hard-vac line that runs under the plenum, as i noticed today that the line was disconnected at the IAC motor, as a result, engine go-no-idle.

Onto the next trouble, she seems to want to die at just about any RPM on the map, least that what i was thinking. I reset the timing as it was off a bit ( i thought that was why it wasn't running) but it proved not to be. Neway, she'll run now, die sometimes in park, but run for the most part. I'm not pulling any codes right now, i put the car in reverse, and she backs up fine, if you put the car in drive, she hesitates and stumbles anytime gas is raised above idle. Also, i found a wire that is melted/broke, goes to my o2 sensor, but i wouldn't think this would make such a big deal with the car in gear, would just make the motor run like ***.

Hmmm, that's all i can get for right now. Least one of the problems is solved, so now i just have to solve the other ones. Think transmission trouble? seems unlikely, but, possible. thanx for the help so far.

 

You are getting different fuel pressure because the Cold start switch got some when the car is running. Check ignition....one distibutor wire might be almost cut off.

 

I had the same problem. Definitely rule this out. A company up here in Vancouver called Pico (http://www.picocanada.com/) makes replacement connectors. You should be able to get them anywhere.

 

Thanks for the info camaro_junkie,I went out to my favorite u-pull it wrecking yard,they have about 6 camaros W/V6s,I got a coil and the connectors for $5,I think my problem is fixed.
Bob

 

85f-bird: You didn't splice into one of the coil signal wires to add a tachometer did you? Those splices are bad news. They will eventually cut the wire straight through.

 

well, didn't have to cut into a wire to add a tach, already had one from the factory, and i spliced into that wire from the inside of the car, splicing it into 4th gen harness, 1-wire to 1-wire connection, nothing out of the normal. There was once a MSD 6AL on the car, and the wires were spliced there, however ,the unit was removed, the wiring re-worked by a shop. It is possible that thse wires are getting bad though, so i'll be sure to check that out. Also , ineed to pull my guages and look behind them at the wiring, making sure i don't have any bad connections.