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Stalling

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M

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After running for about 15 minutes, my 1966 BJ8 stalls out. It won't start right up again, but if I let the car sit for about 3 minutes, it will start, run for a while and then stall again. It is beginning to stall more frequently now.
So is it carburetion, ignition, or something else?
The carbs were rebuilt last year by Joe Curto (they came out beautifully) and I installed a Pertronix ignition system. The car was running well for about a year until this problem developed.
I suspect failure of the electronic ignition, but, short of removing it and reinstalling points, I can't see how to diagnose an ignition problem when the car isn't running.
 
Clogged inlet screens on the carbs? Clogged fuel pickup? (I've seen cars act similarly with very dirty fuel filters....)

Is your gas cap venting correctly?
 
I put my money on it being electrical. If it was fuel I doubt it would re-start after just sitting for 3 minutes. Pertronix either work or not, so it won't be that. Try another coil.
 
FWIW

Being an oldie, not sure how a Pertonix is linked in to the electricals but I had a similar problem and I was using a standard dizzy and it turned out to be the low tension connection into the dizzy from the coil. There was very little connection left between the wire and the end terminal, in fact the insulation was the only thing holding the connection together. The car would run a bit then stop, then start up again after things cooled down.

:cheers:

Bob
 
Thanks. I replaced the fuel lines and filter in the spring. The fuel pump sounds normal before starting the car when I turn on the ignition. But fuel cap venting? That's something I never considered. I just twist the fuel cap on. How does one check for venting??
 
RoyC said:
Thanks. I replaced the fuel lines and filter in the spring. The fuel pump sounds normal before starting the car when I turn on the ignition. But fuel cap venting? That's something I never considered. I just twist the fuel cap on. How does one check for venting??
Click to expand...
Suction at the fuel cap when it stalls. Don't wait or it will slowly equalize pressure in and out of the tank.
 
RoyC said:
Thanks. I replaced the fuel lines and filter in the spring. The fuel pump sounds normal before starting the car when I turn on the ignition. But fuel cap venting? That's something I never considered. I just twist the fuel cap on. How does one check for venting??
Click to expand...

I just saw the above post that came in while I was editing mine - an excellent suggestion! :friendly_wink:

When is stalls, immediately get out and open the fuel cap. If there is a vacuum in the tank, you'll hear a whoosh. If there is no whoosh, then the tank is probably venting properly.

A vapor lock could also cause this. Make sure the fuel system lines and parts around the engine are not too near to, or can touch any hot engine part (direct contact or radiant heat), but I've observed it usually takes more than 3 minutes to cool the fuel enough to restart the engine, but???

My experience with bad cols is either an immediate failure (due to a gorilla tightening its clamp, my brother!), or a gradual degradation in power -or a miss- with no recovery when restarting, followed eventually by complete failure. The condensers that have failed for me just quit, but since it's a capacitor, I imagine heat build-up could also cause an intermittent failure. The fact that the failure is occurring at a more frequent rate could indicate an electrical part is degenerating. When it restarts, does it run as well as it did (before stalling), or has performance slowly degraded?

GL, and as always, YMMV! Jim
 
Sounds like my AN5...ran out of gas and immediately after refilling I had the same symptoms. Replaced filter all was good. I guess I need to drop the tank this winter for a good cleaning.
 
Has the inside of the fuel tank been "coated" with a sealant__or is it rusted? The pump's suction can hold debris at the end of the pickup tube for a period of time then the loss of suction allows it to fall away, only to be sucked up again, repeating the stalling process.

If you can do this diagnostic test the next time it stalls, you may be able to come to a conclusion; when it stalls, you can pull the front carb's float lid as already mentioned, and if possible, give a good blast of air back into the fuel supply pipe (via lungs or compressed air). If the car immediately starts up again after quickly putting it back together, then you've likely found the culprit.
 
Another thought on the same lines as Randy's above - what about something floating in the tank? I think that it was this site a few years ago now, someone found something drifting around in their tank and it was drawn to the outlet pipe clogging it. Turnin the pump off and it drifted away again only to return when the pump was restarted.

:cheers:

Bob
 
Bob Hughes said:
Another thought on the same lines as Randy's above - what about something floating in the tank? I think that it was this site a few years ago now, someone found something drifting around in their tank and it was drawn to the outlet pipe clogging it. Turnin the pump off and it drifted away again only to return when the pump was restarted.

:cheers:

Bob
Click to expand...
i had trash in the dump of my tank and it was cleared by a blast of air from the disconnected one at the fuel pump to the tank. The second time I had blockage of gas tank sealer between the tank and fuel pump. That was a hard one to troubleshoot and I was only able to find it by inserting a 1/8" pipe cleaning cable in the line and measured where it stopped and then cut out a section of fuel line and replace with a rubber fuel hose.
 
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