It just died while driving

[427TJ]

Driving my Camaro on the freeway at 70 and the engine quits. I look down at the tach and see the needle bounce a couple of times from zero to about 3000 but the engine is stopped. I coast to the roadside, put it in Park, turn the key and it starts. Runs a little rough for a second, I rev it a few times to clear it, it clears up and idles fine so I pull back onto the road to head home. A mile later it died again and I coast to the roadside again. I put it in Park, hit the key, the starter cranks for a half-second and then nothing. Nada. Zip. Move the key from Off to Start several times and get nothing. No sound, no clicking, no nothing. Get it towed home, wait until after dinner and go out and try the key--maybe a heat-soaked starter is part of my problem. Turn the key to Start and get nothing.

1. New Die Hard installed the previous week.
2. New ignition harness installed two years ago.
3. All ground straps in place.

Questions:

Could a failed starter solenoid cause the engine to quit?
Could a bad condenser do that?

[SuperNovaSS]

The starter solenoid may cause a problem if it has the wire going to the coil fr extra voltage during starting. I'm not sure. Have you tried jumping the starter terminals manually? Maybe a wire grounded out on a header/exhaust manifold?


Jason

[VintageMusclecar]

--Make sure the wires to the starter are OK

--Check the pigtail from the positive cable to the junction block

--Check the harness where it plugs into the firewall

[Mr70]

Sounds like it could be a loose harness plug to one of your ignition spades on the steering column switch above your feet also,if this car is so equipped.
That's where you hotwire a car..
Make sure they are all properly "clicked" into that ignition switch terminal mounted on your column,where the key switch rod activates it.

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
Sounds like it could be a loose harness plug to one of your ignition spades on the steering column switch above your feet also.
That's where you hotwire a car..
Make sure they are all properly "clicked" into that ignition switch terminal mounted on your column,where the key switch rod activates it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like a column-mounted ignition you're describing? My Camaro is a '67 and has the key in the dash, as I am sure you know. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif But I will check the ignition connections under the dash.

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
--Make sure the wires to the starter are OK

--Check the pigtail from the positive cable to the junction block

--Check the harness where it plugs into the firewall

[/ QUOTE ]

The two wires to the starter from the harness (one yellow, one purple) were wrapped in insulated tape and the insulated tape was kinda' cooked from being close to the exhaust manifold. I pulled the wires up top and peeled the baked insulating tape off and both the yellow and the purple solenoid wires seem fine underneath. The pigtail from the Positive battery cable to the junction on the radiator support seems fine too. Very perplexing.

I'll troubleshoot it some more on Tuesday. I'm a do-do when it comes to electrical bugaboos so I feel like Stevie Wonder as I go along. Thanks guys for the help so far and thanks budnate for the phone call earlier!

Back at it.

[njsteve]

Old fried set of points? That happened to me when I was first getting the T/A running. I absent-mindedly left all the braided metal ground straps disconnected. It caused a back feed of voltage that literally fried the mating surfaces of the ingnition points to where the car would crank but not start. When I hooked the ground straps back up it started but ran really badly, it wouldn't rev over 2000 rpm. Replaced the points and condensor and attached the ground straps and she ran fine.

[427TJ]

Okay, my Camaro is up and running once again! I'm not sure exactly what the problem was but I replaced the old (original, I think) starter and solenoid with an Autolite unit from the parts store, new OEM-look coil from Rick's, new OEM-look spring-clamp battery cables from Rick's that have the ground pigtail off the Negative to the fender and the lights pigtail off the Positive to the junction block on the rad support. I also put heat wrap sheathing around the wires from the ignition harness to the solenoid so they don't cook on the exhaust manifold and I put a heat wrap around the starter so it won't get heat-soaked in summer traffic. Started right up and started several times once it was good and hot so I guess I fixed whatever it was! My Camaro is my back-up car for Goodguys this year in case my '55 surprises me with some "issue." Thanks guys for the help! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif x 1,000

[elonblock]

Good job,

Happy cruising!

[Salvatore]

I would still put a dwell meter on it and visibly check the points. Can't hurt! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif

[427TJ]

Points and condenser checked out Sam, thanks! I think I found the real culprit. A while back I bought a new Jet Q-jet with electric choke. (I ordered manual choke but they sent the electric so I kept it and installed it.) My buddy was over at the house and he hooked up the electric choke's power wire to the coil. I thought that was a bad idea but he said naah, it's fine there. The electric choke functioned properly for a few months and then slowly stopped functioning and the car reverted to fussy start-ups and poor cold idle quality. I didn't think much of it because the engine has well over 100k on it and it's just an old car. So during this recent crap-out I replaced the coil with an OEM-look stock replacement coil from Rick's and disconnected that damn electric choke wire that had always bothered me because it was connected to the coil rather than its own dedicated power source. As I've said above the car now starts and runs like a real champ. Smooth cold start, smooth cold idle (for a 110K 396/325) and the electric choke is not hooked up. I think I may have fried the old coil with that choke wire siphonong-off current? That might explain the tach needle bouncing a few times after the engine quit at speed on the freeway? Any comments on my hypothesis??? Could the choke wire drawing off the coil cause coil failure or at least diminished coil performance?

Now I'm going to remove the electric choke setup and see if I can re-mount the old manual choke parts.