Thread: novice needs help

Could be the ignition module, but I'm not 100% certain that they play up intermittantly, or just stop for good.

I'm sure someone will chime in here and put me straight on that one.

The wiring in general could be a bit dodgy - could be a loose or rubbed through wire on the ignition circuit as well.

It can be bloody hard and annoying trying to find a fault like this. Try starting the engine, then go over the wiring loom under the bonnet and give it a good shake around the ignition, dizzy, etc and see if you can make it cut out. If it does, you should be able to track down a loose wire or dodgy connector/crimp/etc.

Hope you find it.

Cheers - Gav

its lucas electrical your primary electical condition choices are

nope the smokes gone.
well if its raining it works
if its dry it works
if its humid it works
if its cold it wont work but sometimes it does when it warms up
it wont work when its hot but if its cool its ok
it works but it smells like hot tar sometimes
it works about half the time
occasionally it stops for a while but then it comes good
it works but you have to jiggle the switch a bit
it works when the engine up and the battery voltage is over 13V

and Juuuust occasionally, if you're lucky

Yep, its working.

The vacuum unit being loose will move the timing around abit, depending on how it was timed up in the first place it will lead to intermittant poor running and in some circumstances very poor running if its come off the shaft and the advance is just floating around. If it winds on advance when it doesnt need it it will ping more often than an internet gaming freak looking for the fastest connection and if it retards when it needs advance you can get some pretty good backfires and burble out of it.

The simplest reason for flapper EFI systems to stop intermittently is a dodgy over-run vacuum switch. This switch lives on the drivers side rear corner of the engine and has a pair of wires and a vacuum hose to the manifold. Bridge the two wires and see if the problem re-occurs. This switch interrupts the wiring from the negative side of the coil to the ECU. The wire provides the ECU with the only signal for engine rotation.

Will have a play around tommorow ,luckily hasn't happened while in traffic ,but scared it will happen in traffic ,start losing confidence in the car .Don't get me wrong well aware the car is 24 years old and do expect it to break down on me occasionaly.Car wasn't driven a lot in the last 12 months by previous owner ,even though he owned it for the last 12 years.Said he'd only done 1000km in last year,last serviced 6 months ago and only driven 500kms.So expect some repairs,just want to get the car in a reliable state. Thanks mark

Originally Posted by mark75

g,day guys ,while driving today my rrc 88 3.5 cut out on me for about 10 sec ,as if i took my foot off petrol .Then cut back in again and ran fine the rest of way home.did it to me about a week ago on highway ,same thing.Since the first time have had leads,plugs,distributer cap and rotor arm replaced and service done.mechanic said today ,might be loose lead to the coil ,or replace the coil.Also while looking for loose leads i found the vacuum unit seems loose .My questions are what affect on the car ( loose vacuum unit)and should i just replace the coil (probably due anyway).thanks for your time ,i've only owned her a couple of weeks and undertaking a steep learning curve thanks mark

There is a little dodad on one of the coil terminals that sends a message to the ecu that the engine is running, if it is loose can cause cutout also the over run cutout that has been mentioned best bridged to stop it from working just supposed to cut fuel off completly on over-run.
Module can stop for a time then start working again then stop completly.

Mine used to give little cut outs / hesitation in heavy rain. I traced the fault to the relay which supplies injector power. It is mounted on the air flow meter bracket (from memory).

Originally Posted by BigJon

Mine used to give little cut outs / hesitation in heavy rain. I traced the fault to the relay which supplies injector power. It is mounted on the air flow meter bracket (from memory).

Yep ditto for me as well some years back!

Given that this happened with a change in throttle position, check the small 2-wire harness to the reluctor inside the distributor. These wires flex when the vac-advance rotates the backing plate. Had this fault on my 88RR a few years ago, eventually discovered one of these wires fractured internally.