So I'm thinking about buying an 85 Camaro 2.8L and 5 speed Transmission. The body is straight, no dents, and paint is faded. has two rust spots but noting to big. The car is in pretty good shape but the owner said the car ran but one day it just stopped. He says its the distributor.
I need help on different reason on why a car would just stop and if it is or not the distributor.

 

No one here will be able to say "The car died because of .....(insert reason here)" because there is a fairly long list of things that would make an engine run one minute and not the next . Could be as simple as being out of gas or as major as the engine threw a rod , and it will take proper troubleshooting to determine exactly why it won't run . The owner says the distributor is at fault , hopefully he's honest (and not clueless) and if so , it sounds like a spark problem . You gotta start with the basics , does the starter crank the engine at the right speed to start , but the engine won't start ? If so , it may well have lost spark (or fuel) and so next up here is a check of the spark while cranking to see if it's present or not . The thing is , you have an engine that flat out won't run , this is by far the easiest thing to diagnose , because something is totally absent for this to happen , it ain't getting either spark , fuel , or compression , the three major things an engine needs to run .

 

It was God's will.

 

Fuel, spark, compression. Find what it has, what it doesn't, then go from there.

 

Dr Dave and OrangeBird are right. See if you can smell fuel after trying to turn it over. A lot of times, if you take the gas cap off and put your ear somewhere close to it and have someone turn the key, you can probably hear the fuel pump turn on and prime the system. It doesn't always mean that the fuel is getting to the engine or has enough fuel pressure, but it's a start. Take the ignition coil wire off of the distributor and lay it on top of the plug it goes into and turn the key and see if you can see spark jump. That will tell you if the ignition coil is good. If so, do the same thing at an easy to reach and see spark plug wire at the spark plug and see if you get spark there? If you do, that can tell you that at least the distributor cap and rotor are at least functioning. They may not be functioning well, but at least they somewhat work. Not getting air is not likely unless you have 1 hell of a clog somewhere and usually the least likely issue. Try those tricks and get back to us with what you find.

 

ICM, would cause sudden stop. And it's in the distributor.

 

Don't forget about our favorite friend VATS!

 

VATS didn't show up until 1990.

 

I wish!.


It became standard in 1989 which is what my 2.8 is lol

 

D'oh!!!! Off by one year, I was rounding up lol.

 

there also could be a big rat in the intake tube blocking off the air.

 

Or several small rats