Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

[jperry1290]

Driving down the road and stopped at a red light. Engine sputtered and died. I couldn't get it to restart. I sat in the parking lot for 30 min and tried again, it was rough but finally started up, when I shut it down it deceled before shutting off. I had free towing so it was towed home to avoid stalling on the busy road. Engine is newer 302 crate, edelbrock carb with Hei ignition. Too rich???

[earlybronco72]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Check the plug on the distributor. I had one of the spade lugs come loose.

[DirtDonk]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Too rich does not drive fine and then die and not restart. Too lean does not run fine then die, then not restart. At least not as far as settings and adjustments are concerned.
Now if it's temporarily running rich or lean due to a fault, that's a different story. Flooded would be easy to tell though, and relatively easy to fix on the spot by holding the throttle open all the way until it starts, then as it revs up to clean out, only then let off the throttle.
But all this time, you should have (normally at least) smelled the excess fuel sitting in the carburetor and manifold and getting pumped out of the exhaust.

Do you have a tachometer? If so, did you notice whether or not it dropped to zero instantly, or if it continued to read lower and lower as the engine died? Reason I ask is that if it's ignition related then your tach would die instantly even while the engine still spun down to zero. That's one way to tell anyway.
That same theory might hold true while you're cranking the starter. If the tach jumps up while cranking, the ignition is likely still good. But that might all depend on where the tach is getting it's power from too. Some circuits don't get voltage while the starter is cranking.

What about testing for spark? Don't pull a plug wire and do the old "see if it jumps to ground" test, as that can mess with your HEI module inside the distributor. Use a timing light instead, to look for the light to pulse as you crank it.
If no light, no spark.

You're going to have to do a few more tests before it'll be as easy as saying it's one thing or another. Right now there's a list of about 30 things it could be.
See if you have voltage to the distributor.
See if you have fuel in the carb.
See if there are any obvious wires loose or fuel pumps not pumping.

You know... Stuff like that.

Good luck

Paul

[69crawler]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Maybe loose bolt holding the distributer in place and it move affecting you timing?

[jperry1290]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Messed with the tuning a bit, but it started right up when I pulled it out from the garage. I adjusted the carb as it was running a bit rich. Pulled the plugs and the were sooty black and smelled of fuel. I adjusted the timing to 6°btc. Runs great seems to have more power from the line. Tested for vacuum leaks and didn't find any. Checked all ground and plugs wires didn't find any loose ones.

[jperry1290]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Engine had been running great for the last 2mos. Took the wife and kids out for a cruise on Sat and all was well. Right after stopping for gas the engine died in the fast lane on the highway. No sputtering just died like I turned off the ignition. I'm going to try to add a electric fuel pump and reroute the fuel line to try and avoid any vapor lock that may be occurring. Any other suggestions? After a few hours it started up and drove fine. Also if it helps the carb is an edlebrock.

[pipelayer]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

A bad coil?

[TWISTER]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

This sounds like to me a fuel delivery problem, have you checked the vent on the fuel tank/cap?

[1968u15]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Fuel (esp. a carb.) will generally give at least a little hint, sputter, surge something. Seems electrical to me. First thing after it stalls and you're in a safe place just take the top off the air cleaner and give the throttle lever a couple quick pumps, if it squirts(the carb into the front bores) then you want check spark right away, before the module cools off again. If you want to do all this during a test drive take a 12v test light and a passenger. When it stalls and if there is fuel, put the test light probe on the neg. side of the coil(tach connection spade) and ground the clamp end and have the passenger crank the engine. The test light should flash. If not there is either no power to/through the coil or the ignition module is bad. Judging by the symptoms, I'm betting on the module or primary wiring to it. IMHO. I've seen plenty of electronic ignition modules(all makes)fail just like that. Best of luck!

[jperry1290]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

I did check the carb right after it died and it was squirting fuel. Also pulled the fuel line and the fuel pump was pumping plenty of gas. The distributor is a hei pro comp (msd knock off). I read on the HAMB that the hei units don't like heat and fail often. I ve owned the car for about 2.5yrs but it was in the shop for the last 2yrs on and off getting paint and body done, had to be fixed numerous times as it was a bad paint shop. This makes me wonder if the battery could be worn out and not pushing enough power to the hei. I need to check the battery and alternator this weekend.

[polecat]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

One thing that can cause this is the pickup coil in the distributor going bad. I've had two of them fail on my 302. One had a wire broken inside the insulation from flexing/movement of the breaker plate in the distributor. The other was thermal - it would go open once the engine warmed up. On the stock Duraspark distributors the violet and orange wires go to the pickup coil. Not sure if the Procomp is the same. Check the ohm reading cold then check it again after the engine dies to see if it's going open. Also try wiggling the wires or moving the breaker plate while looking at the ohmmeter. Not saying that's it, but it's one possibility that you can check. Good luck! JL

[70 Steed]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

One thing that can cause this is the pickup coil in the distributor going bad. I've had two of them fail on my 302. One had a wire broken inside the insulation from flexing/movement of the breaker plate in the distributor. The other was thermal - it would go open once the engine warmed up. On the stock Duraspark distributors the violet and orange wires go to the pickup coil. Not sure if the Procomp is the same. Check the ohm reading cold then check it again after the engine dies to see if it's going open. Also try wiggling the wires or moving the breaker plate while looking at the ohmmeter. Not saying that's it, but it's one possibility that you can check. Good luck! JL

This would be the first thing I'd check.

[DirtDonk]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

And even if your battery is in need of some TLC, it's not the cause of this while running. As long as the engine is running, it's the alternator that keeps things running. All the battery does is sit there and take a charge from the alternator and act as a spike suppressor for the system while it's at it.
So if you're having a low-voltage issue anywhere, it's either the alternator not putting out sufficient charge (easy to test) or one of the wires and/or connections in the system failing.

The good news is that all that simplifies the search. The bad news is that it doesn't exactly make it "easy" to do!

Paul

[jperry1290]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Alt and batt test showed they re both in good working order. I let the car warm up at idle in the driveway then romped around the neighborhood and it ran fine. Parked it for about 20min then it would not start, but had power to radio and fan. I waited 5min and it started fine. Again warmed it up drove around and it didn't die. All grounding cables and ignition wires were checked and all were tight. I just bought a pertronix and coil which will hopefully fix this.

[jperry1290]

Re: Engine died while driving wouldn't restart

Dropped some coin on a new distributor and coil only to find out that the problem is continuing. While trying to time the engine during the initial setup I turned the key to "start" and engine didn't budge. The radio, lights, and gauges were all on in the "run" and "acc" spots. I checked and had power to the solenoid and coil. 10min later it fired up no problem. Will replace the solenoid and ignition switch along with a new ignition wire.