My new year has started out bad....Driving the 56 wagon yesterday, it dies on the freeway. Figuring I am out of gas, my brother brings me gas, I get it running, fill it up at gas station and on my way. Drive about 5 miles to my destination with no trouble. Leaving there it stalls again and I coast into a parking lot. Get it running (and notice my alternator light turning on) I discover my alternator belt has broke. I go down the street and get a new one, put it on and I am on my way......3 miles later, it stalls again... so I call to get a tow. This happend about a year ago as well so we put a new fuel pump / filter on at that time.....About 4 months ago, it happend again and we noticed the fuel lines running very close to the exhaust so we we re-route them and move the fuel pump to a better location (susspecting the heat from the exhaust was vaporizing the fuel). No problems again until yesterday. Now the car starts right off the bat but I am leary to drive to drive it because I don't want to get stranded again.... Any ideas ??? I am wondering if a stronger fuel pump is the solution.....
Maybe small filter in carb,or something like that,could even be coil over heating from old going bad,dose tank have screen on pick up that is cluging up with deman.
Are you sure that the problem is with fuel? You might have a bad coil or another ignition problem that shuts you down. You may want to drop the gas tank and flush out the accumulated crap and make sure the pick up tube is solid. Check the flex lines for soft places or cracks/air leaks.
I thought of that but if it was the tank, would'nt you think it would act up a lot more? It has been running great for the past few months until yesterday......I will certainly check into it though.
The first thing to do is to diagnose what kind of problem that you have. Get a gum cutter spray bomb and try spraying some into the carb while someone else tries to start it. If it starts or tries to then you probably have a fuel problem. I have driven a car that wouldn't run into my shop by spraying Gum cutter into the carb while someone else was turning the key and steering. At least then you know where to look. I wouldn't drop a gas tank until I had proven everything else in the system is working as it should. Fuel filters, fuel pump, cracked fuel hose etc. etc. Have a plan and don't just throw parts at it. Just like me anyone responding to this post is just guessing until tests are made to narrow down the problem. It's called trouble shooting and not a simple wild ass guess based on something that happened to me or a friend years ago. It will save a lot of money and energy. If it is a fuel problem it is easy to figure out what is wrong but don't jump to drastic conclusions. The hardest part is finding out where to look instead of going off on wild goose chases. They can get expensive.
How long did it happen last year? May be winter formula fuel disagrees with your car. Last Christmas I got a bad tank of gas. It'd just quit driving down the road, but @ least it would crank right back up untill the next time it would quit.
It happened once last year so we put the new fuel pump on. No troubles again until Aug of 2010. Hot out here so we figured vapor lock because of the lines running along the exhaust. Fixed that and no troubles until yesterday. It was only about 40 degrees out so I thought that had something to do with it. It fires right up now so I am at a loss. I will get out and start going through some of you guys suggestions though....
My guess is that you have an electrical problem in the ignition or key switch.I had a 60 Chevy years ago with the original unmolested wiring harness that still looked great .Every now and then it wouldnt start with the key ,and it would always do it at the worst time (raining out side ,nice clothes on , etc.).I would have to slide under it and jump the starter sol. with a screw driver and it would kick right off.I replaced the starter and sol first (had a spare one laying around),new connector ends on the wires to the sol. ,then the key switch ,sandblasted the connection of the harness at the firewall ,nothing would fix it and it would still mess up ten times in a row ,then wouldnt do it for a week.I finally ran a new wire from the key to the sol. and it never did it again.Only thing i could figure was the factory wire had been rubbed through ,cut ,burnt ,or something in the harness.Not the same problem as you have exactly ,but dont rule out electrical .Could be the wire to the coil thats causing your deal in the harness somewhere ...
Will post later......Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. Gotta an emergency to take care of. May have to put down one of our Greyhounds today. Just keeping and eye on her and waiting for my wife to get home.
Tough call Kerry, like Tommy said, it could be any number of things. Start cheap and easy, check the flow of fuel and clean/replace the fuel filter. I would highly doubt that the fuel pump is the issue because the car started running again and now will start. If the pump went bad, it would die, then not refire because the fuel wouldn't get up to the motor. A clogged filter could cause that problem though. Start there. If it's not the fuel, you've got to look for ignition issues. If you're running points, that would be the first place I look. A lot of these new sets you buy are made in China and burn out super easy. This is another easy cheap fix. Also, like The Shocker mentioned, the ignition switch could be bad internally. I just went through this with my 67 C/10. The car would intermittently turn off, then turn back on again. I replaced the switch and never had another issue. What are some of the specifics of your setup? Ignition? Fuel pump? carb? we'll figure this out
Not discounting any of the above suggestions, I also think the ignition switch could be the culprit. But; Years ago I had a similar issue with a 78 Chevy PU. Just randomly it would choke out like it ran out of gas. Usually at the most inopportune times but if you sat still for a minute or so it would crank over a few times (mechanical fuel pump) and start. Curious thing was this issue came on suddenly and would do it with a full or partial tank of fuel. We did everything, pump, lines, filters, checked for vacuum leaks, electrical and what we replaced or thoroughly checked out didn't fix the issue. After dieing on a left hand turn during rush hour and jamming up traffic we had it. We stripped everything down including pulling the very clean fuel tank to have it cleaned again. With the tank on the floor and the sending unit out I thought I saw something floating on the surface of the fuel. I took a stick of welding rod and bent a hook on the end and went fishing and pulled out a square of cellophane wrap about the size of a sandwich. I had a locking gas cap on the truck, so what I figure happened is someone stuffed this bit of plastic in the fuel nozzle and when I put gas in the truck, shot this bit of cellophane into the tank along with the fuel load. Normally it would float on the top of the fuel but when driving it would get pulled up against the fuel pickup and starve the system until the truck would choke and die. Once the fuel pump suction was shut off the plastic would float back to the top and reset the scenario all over again.
If it was the ignition switch, why would it bog like it was starved for fuel? I could have sworn that I ran out of gas the first time yesterday. When I first got to the side of the road I was cranking it and it was not getting anything. When my brother got there, I put gas in the tank and then in the carb and it fired up. A mile later I filled up (and it only took $16) and away I went.....
Lots of good suggestions here! One of todays BIG problems is GAS. If you buy a gallon of todays gas and put it in a glass jug and sit it in your garage or somewhere that equals the same temps as your car's tank, in 3-4 months there will be ONE INCH of water on top of it!! That is also why your mowers,chain-saws and leaf blowers won't start in the Spring. Stay-Bil is the only way to go in our old cars that sit in the Winter months. The "new" gas SUCKS!!
Interesting story... I had an old dodge truck that someone had sealed the sending unit with RTV, one morning on the way to work (this was a long time ago!) it stopped dead. Acted fuel starved, so for some reason I pulled the sender out, and found a nice round plug of silicone in the end of it. But that's probably not what's going on here.... The broken belt might be a coincidence, or it might be a clue. Wet fuel? I can see that happening in humid places like Florida, but not in Phoenix....
I found a few corn dog sticks in the gas tank from my 54 Chevy car .It doesnt surprise me that you found a plastic bag in your gas tank ...
Could be there is a wire in the harness to the ignition coil at some point thats slowly grounding itself out till it dies and makes it seem like its startving for fuel.To rule that starving for fuel problem out try this .Drive it till it starts doing it again ,as soon as it gives the first sign of it kill the ignition and kick into nuetral instantly.Pull over and pull the breather ,then look into the carb and rap the throttle to see if it is infact out of fuel .Process of elemination is the method i use to fix cars ,so im not chasing my tail .Rule out one potential problem completely before you move on to the next ...
Old vehicle's gas fillers seem to be a prime place for small kids to stick stuff if the car is sitting for a long time. Have you changed the gas cap lately? I went through three new name brand "vented" caps on my 51 Merc before I found one that was actually vented correctly. Drive about three miles and have the car quit. I walked a mile to the gas station once but the next time I had my gas jug in the trunk full and when I opened the gas cap I could hear the bottom of the tank pop back out from being sucked in by the fuel pump. Bad electrical connections, especially on slide connections has been a pain in the butt on my 71 GMC lately. Worth going through the wiring from the switch to the coil to make sure that everything is tight. A broken clip on an HEI connector will let the connector move around just enough to cause the engine to die too. And as someone said, a bad coil that breaks down when it gets hot but works after it cools off.
When car quits and you think its gas ,double check coil try starting while useing a volt meter at coil to see if you have voltage to coil and dist.This should eliminate electrial.I have also had one of my cars use more gas than my gas line could supply.I put electric and when I heard sputting hit the switch and it came back to life.I made several changes after,but it was the line,but whould only happen under power for a while on highway.Hope these anidotes help Rogue
Went out today and the wagon started right off. I ran it for about 15 minutes and rev'd pretty well. No stalling but I did notice condensation all over the driveway for about 6 feet behind the tailpipes after I ran it and rev'd it. Condensation in the tank ? I filled it Saturday after I first broke down so would a bottle of Stabil help or Heet or something. Just wondering if that could be the cause. I know I was not out of gas when it first stalled because it only took $16 to fill it when I got to the gas station. Right now it seems to be running fine......WTF ???!!!! And it has been colder than usual here.
Wondering if that is the problem....Car does not get driven daily and does a lot of hanging around in the garage. I wonder how shitty the gas is if condensation has built up. There has been quite a bit of temp change in the weather out here the past few weeks....and like I said, I blew a lot of condensation out my pipes a few minutes ago.
I've diagnosed several cars that have had the exact same symptoms....turned out to be a plugged fuel tank vent! Make sure you have at least 1/4 tank of gas, loosen up the cap and drive the car for an hour. If it dies again, it's not the vent...if it doesn't look for a malfunctioning vented cap or a plugged tank vent... Hope this is the problem...cheap fix. PS....just found Bobwop and a few others have also touched on this. BTW, condensation can rust the vent closed..found this on a buddy's 68 chevelle once
In similar situations my culprits were: condensor &/or internal dizzy ground plate wire - would drive great under 30 mph - even burn rubber - would loose power on freeway could barely do 40 mph. "muck" broke loose inside gas tank - sloshing around an intermittenlly cloging pickup result in major loss of power and stalling - this was a fun one to diagnose because it wouldn't completely clog - just enough so it'd still idle fine but couldn't keep up and eventually stall - lack of gas - after it'd sit a short time - even a minute or two - it'd "open up" I'd crank it & it'd fire right up and idle great. Bowls would fill and it drive great again until the sloshing would clog it again.
Ive been goin through the same thing on my 55,thinking it was vaporlocking back in the summer, insulating lines, thicker carb spacer, new fuel pump,etc. etc. Even tho I drained the tank repeatidly until gas came out clear,after driving it for a while and it quiting again I drained it again and a bunch more junk came out. (more crud breaking loose inside tank) Im pretty sure I need a new gas tank or at least have this one cleaned and a new carb would be nice too.
When it quits check the obvious Fuel Fire and compression. If you think it is fuel pressure spray carb cleaner in the carb and see if it runs. look for spark at the plugs.
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