Engine out - on the freeway

[fredsub]

Things were definitely not feeling normal, was having trouble keeping idle,
erratic acceleration, then it happened...engine went out, coasted off the freeway..at least there was plenty of room on the side. Hey at least this engine is not in an airplane! They are usually your most intense moments
when your instructor pulls the throttle back on you and shouts "engine out " simulate emergency landing procedures.....
still on the free way can be quite harrowing too..what if you stop dead in a lane......?

You know, the worst thing about stopped on freeway is....you can't hear the engine crank, can't hear the fuel pump
So I let the engine cool down - not that it was hot, just normal temp.
Checked if I had any tools onboard, darn not really, two stuffed spanners no good for anything,..didn't even bring the mobile phone ....hmm had the swiss army knife, and the only reason had that was to cut an apple later on.
So I sat there for an hour, ate the apple and orange and contemplated....what tf is wrong, something with the new fuel pump ? the MSD Hi-Vib coil? anyway waited for the noise levels to subside some.....
hmm crank it...nothing...damn thinking time to heave this heap off somewhere ...........
checked the pulse light on the ECU, ...crank...no its pulsing, so at least its not the passenger side timing belt.....well its only been newed months ago....
pulled a spark plug lead, stuck a small useless spanner up it and sat it near the block....crank....didn't see a spark...but might have missed it cause of the daylight.....

anyway was about to unplug the ECU, and the wbo2 to leave it parked, when i gave it another once over....and and checked the dizy cap....hmmm
this is something I neglected to look at in ages....so started to look closely, them terminals looked rather powdery, got the swiss kniff and started scratching away at the terminal posts and the rotor....
placed it back and crank...**** its running

Well dang so thats been the problem 8O I had removed the CDI on the weekend thinking that it was finally failing, which I had been expecting for
ages..now 18months later..lol.....
so the CDI was actually making up for the deficiencies of the distributor quite well....it may have accelerated its wear but it s as old as the engine I think.....

I repeated the clean procedure another 2 times b4 getting home
so i'll be putting the CDI back in tomorrow, so I can get to the subaru dealer with less fuss and order a new dizy cap.


well thats my story of today, sorry its a bit long, hope you enjoy it, might be a few lessons in there....is for me thats for sure

[tim_81coupe]

It's funny how the cap is usually the least thought about part of the ignition system.

I bought my sedan from my sister's boyfriend's grandma. He (sister's bf) works for Holden as a mechanic, he's done his four years and he's fully qualified. Before I bought it he told me it needed new engine and transmission mounts.

When I took it for the first drive (home after buying it... LOL) I noticed it had heaps of vibrations and shuddering. I had visually checked the mounts and they seemed good, but this shuddering seemed to validate his diagnosis. I limped it home and started to tune it up, did a complete service with filters, plugs, leads, etc but I overlooked the distributor. After the service it felt no better - still shuddered horribly every time I took off and every time it changed gear.

Long story short when I got around to inspecting the cap I found the contacts had nearly fallen out of it they were so worn! New cap, new rotor and new points and she purrs like a kitten!

[wagonist]

Glad you figured it out.
Its always fun trying to work on a car on the side of the freeway.
Had to adjust the handbrake shoes on the Toyota like that after I felt it pulling to one side. Need to drive it more often.

Tim, pity you couldn't have found that fix in front of the mechanic before everything else.
$5? fix for the replacement of the mounts....