Engine died on me tonight in the rain...., won't start, helpness please. djet Options

[Hammy]

Driving home from class tonight and the engine sputtered and died on me a few neighborhoods away from my home. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)


Here's what happened :
At a stoplight and noticed the idle speed was dropping suddenly and nearly died. I revved it up to keep it running, and tried to get the rest of the way home.

As I was driving the rest of the way home, the engine was surging and jerking whenever I stepped on the gas more than a small amount.

I pulled off the main road into a neighborhood and there the engine finally gave up and totally quit.

Trying to restart, the engine just turns over and over.

I checked the usual suspects and looked for anything obvious in the engine bay. Couldn't find anything. Once or twice the engine fired up for a short time, idled somewhat ok for 10 secs or so, but then dwindled off and died again.

A long time spent diagnosing and still nothing.

I switched the two main relays on the relay board with each other, and the engine again fired up for a short time, idled and revved up ok, then dwindled and died after 30 secs or so.

Trying to restart again, for a split second it sounds like it's trying to start as the engine turns over, a quick sputter but never fully fires.

That's where I'm left at now.

A few things I do know:
- It started raining today. I've been out and about with no rain tray on, not a good idea but I did it. It was running around fine all day with no symptoms until this.
- Been running perfectly fine for the 400+ miles now since I installed the engine.

This hiccup came suddenly from nowhere.

Engine is a 1.7 djet from a '72....

Could something electrical be shorting out from the water, causing this intermittent and choppy running? I've looked at everything and there's nothing I can see that's a culprit. The only thing I noticed was the switching of the two relays helped it fire shortly.

Is it maybe fuel? I don't know the symptoms of fuel starvation. The pump is pumping and appears to be working fine. Clogged filter? The filter only has 400 miles on it.


Any help MUCH appreciated... I'm going back in the morning to try and get it home.

[Beamer13]

Check the coil wire or around the distributor. Wife had a car that used to have a similar issue what happened was that the boot around the coil wire on the dizzy had a crack that you couldn't see, but if you had someone else crank while you were looking under the hood, you could see the arc across the wire to the dizzy. (obviously easier to see when it was dark) It would do exactly what yours is doing where if it sits for a while ie: a day it would dry out enough to run. ( cuz there's no water to conduct the arc from the wire. Also had similar issue with my 81 Mercedes. The wires would heat up and expand and then arc to the valve covers. solved this by getting some fuel line a little bigger and split it and wrapped it around each plug wire. Just a thought??

[Michael N]

1

Check the coil wire or around the distributor. Wife had a car that used to have a similar issue what happened was that the boot around the coil wire on the dizzy had a crack that you couldn't see, but if you had someone else crank while you were looking under the hood, you could see the arc across the wire to the dizzy. (obviously easier to see when it was dark) It would do exactly what yours is doing where if it sits for a while ie: a day it would dry out enough to run. ( cuz there's no water to conduct the arc from the wire. Also had similar issue with my 81 Mercedes. The wires would heat up and expand and then arc to the valve covers. solved this by getting some fuel line a little bigger and split it and wrapped it around each plug wire. Just a thought??

I had the same problem on my old 911SC. The car ran fantastic on dry days but H2O in the engine area from washing the car or driving in the rain would cause a short with the spark shorting out through cracked ignition wires. I would get stranded in the rain and have the car towed to the shop for repairs. The rain would stop, car would dry and mechanic could not duplicate the problem. I finally figured it was the water in the engine area causing the problem. I tracked down the short by taking a spray bottle and setting it to mist. Once it was dark I misted the engine and looked for the arc.

[Hammy]

1

Check the coil wire or around the distributor. Wife had a car that used to have a similar issue what happened was that the boot around the coil wire on the dizzy had a crack that you couldn't see, but if you had someone else crank while you were looking under the hood, you could see the arc across the wire to the dizzy. (obviously easier to see when it was dark) It would do exactly what yours is doing where if it sits for a while ie: a day it would dry out enough to run. ( cuz there's no water to conduct the arc from the wire. Also had similar issue with my 81 Mercedes. The wires would heat up and expand and then arc to the valve covers. solved this by getting some fuel line a little bigger and split it and wrapped it around each plug wire. Just a thought??

I had the same problem on my old 911SC. The car ran fantastic on dry days but H2O in the engine area from washing the car or driving in the rain would cause a short with the spark shorting out through cracked ignition wires. I would get stranded in the rain and have the car towed to the shop for repairs. The rain would stop, car would dry and mechanic could not duplicate the problem. I finally figured it was the water in the engine area causing the problem. I tracked down the short by taking a spray bottle and setting it to mist. Once it was dark I misted the engine and looked for the arc.

Thanks. That's something I can check for too.

Though the possibly of this being the problem might be eliminated due to what happened today:

After I got the car home, I let it sit for an hour or so and then decided to chance it and go for a quick drive to the parts store and to see if everything was working ok. No rain today and the engine compartment was dry. It ran normally but then suddenly stumbled again and died while sitting in traffic. Luckily it restarted with some cranking, and I quickly got it back home as fast as possible.

Since then I have put in the new fuel filter and cleaned/sanded the relays on the relay board. Haven't test driven it yet though.