I've had this problem off and on since I got my 70 last year... I cannot reproduce it at will... just seems to happen at random times.. I'd say in the last year this has happend 10-15 times(so not very often since I drive this car daily)

I'll be driving along, usually lower speeds- like 35-45mph, all of a sudden- engine stops- then a second or two later will come right back on.. Yesterday it happened again- Lasted about 20 seconds(longest time yet) before it miraculosly came back on (I was coasting to the side of the road- I could still hear the engine- but the tach read 0 and goosing the gas did nothing...)

Does this sounds like a carb/fuel problem or an ignition problem?

I have a mallory unilight distrib with an accell supercoil- Both are about 5 years old.

I just changed the cap & rotor & spark plugs, and I'm in the process of changing the plug wires with new MSD's(only changed the coil wire so far).
Oh, and the Carb is a Quadrajet- edelbrock brand.

Any ideas?
Thanks-
Ben

I would suggest putting a 12v lamp on the coil + to gnd with enough wire to run it out to your wiper area where you could monitor as you drive. Or if you have a timing light hook it up and tiewrap the trigger and place it in the wiper area.
I did have a 68 SS that gave me fits for months, turned out to be a tiny hole in the gas line on top as it came out of the gas tank . Not big enough to leak gas but would suck air once in a while. Car would die, restart a little hard, blow black smoke and take off.

Hi ben,

Hi Ben,
It sucks being used to using a tab key!!!! Anyhow, I once had a tachometer feed wire that used to short out against the firewall with the very same results. Gotta tach??

Cam

Actually I do have a tach... And actually there is a big mess of wires all jammed together in the rain gutter, and they all come together by the coil at that one spot where the tach wire is located.

I will give that a look tonight and see if I can clean it up some... Maybe as simple as that... smile.gif

Thanks Cam!

Does the whole car lose all electrical power? If so there is a wire that is connected to the horn relay. It should have a quick connect on it somewhere. My car used to just lose ALL power at random. We called it the ghost. All it was was a loose connection in the wire. Hope this helps.

Nope- car still has power (at least the radio was still on)

You feel the car die- and watch the Tach zero out- then it will come back, sometimes will sputter and come back, sometimes just comes right back on clean...

Goofy stuff...

My 68 elco used to do the same thing. Turned out to be a bad ignition swith.

Good luck

Hey,

I had the exact same problem with my 66".I would be driving down the freeway and all the sudden nothing.... radio would be playing tach light on but the engine would die and the tach would read 0.Then a few seconds later it would come back on.I took it to an auto electrical specialist and they found nothing wrong so I took it home.The next day it did the same thing so I took it back the mechanic drove it for 75 miles and could never reproduce the problem or diagnose it.About two months after I detonated two pistons and the car has been sitting for two years.
P.S. I also had a Unilite ???????

AtlFan- Very interesting... Sounds exactly the same as mine..

I havn't had time to mess with the wires or anything yet.. This weekend for sure.

had that problem with my '72 MOPAR; was corroded/loose connections in the wiring to the ignition syste. Some wirebrushing and crimping fixed it completely. My $0.02

I had the same problem in a 65 Mustang that I built as a street rod back in about 1980. Guess what.... Mallory Unilight.

Ford Motors is what convinced me to become a Chevy fan. I got tired of losing.

I had a similar problem but it would totally die and then once it cooled off would run again for about a mile. Bad pick up in the unilite.

Lol... You guys are giving me a subtle hint here.... I think I get it.... Uh.... Oh yeah, Ditch the mallory? :D

Lol. I picked up a used smallbody points distrib from a friend a few months back with the plan to eventually send it down to Day Ray(ignitionman) to have him do the HEI conversion on it and do a custom curve. Maybe I'd better save up a few bucks and finnaly do it...

The thing is this particualr mallory unilight is also a "computer advance" distributor... Kinda goofy, and the computer causes electrical noise interfearance with my stereo, so i've been planning on dumping it for a while...

Guess maybe it will be happening sooner than later. smile.gif

:( :mad: ok... Since I last posted here this has become more than just a weird occurance.

I checked all the wires to the coil and everything looks good, nothing is loose, same with the firewall wires.

Starting this last saturday, it is happening a lot more now. Seems to happen mainly right after i jump on the gas(wot) But it happened today at lunch time when i got back in my car after stopping for a bit... (car was idling)

I'm starting to think it is a carb or fuel pump problem, not distributor. Everytime it happens now, the car acts like it is running out of gas- if i goose the gas a bit- it will come back eventually.

Any more ideas before i start throwing money at this?

Its happening enough now to freak me out to not want to drive the car till I get this resolved- since this is my daily driver, I need to get it fixed asasp....

Thanks-

Hey, every once in awhile, my car will also sputter and want to die when I go WOT. Has only happened two or three times to me so far in a 6 month period. I was wondering about the sock in the gas tank. Could it be possible that it is old and blocked and not letting enough gas go? Just a thought.

Kyle

My brother has a unilite in his truck and it was just turning off like he used the key to do it while cruising down the road too. It didn't come back on though like yours just had to restart. After about a week of this we looked for the problem. To keep it short it ended up being the module in the distributer. Changed it and now purrs like a kitten again. Gary

sure sounds like a fuel problem check your pump pressure and volume check filters and screens at the carb look for pinched line and the ever preasent rusty lines

Hi I had a AMX that would cut out while driving, I would coast to the side of the road & then it would start by up by turning the key. Turns out that the main wiring harness where it goes through the fire wall was coming unpluged, the locking tabs on the plug were broken off. It took me awhile to find that one! Dave

I'm having a similar problem w/ my 70 chevelle, original equipment and am looking for a solution. I found out there is a transmission control spark solenoid used to control vacuum to the vacuum advance. Does yours still have this piece? The part is $80 so I decided to switch from the 2bbl to a 4bbl, parts on order. I don't know exactly how this thing works. I would step on the gas and it would act like the car was starving for fuel, if left floored it would eventually come back and run fine until ready to shift again. I'll let you know how it comes out, by the way dist is Accel blueprint HEI.

Well... On friday afterwork- I jiggled the wires around- didn't find anything loose- but jiggled them around... Drove it for a short time- no issues, however that was normal since it usually took about 30mins of driving for it to start happening.

Today however- I changed the fuel filter.. the little $1.50 one that goes inside the Quarajet... (car doesn't have an external one)

WOW- An Immediate performance difference I could fell!!! :D :D I drove around for about an hour- WOT, up hill, down hill, heavy traffic stop & starts... Didn't cut out once! I did have to stop for a little bit as i started smelling gas, opened the hood to find the fitting spewing gas all over the intake :rolleys: but a few minutes to re-tighten that solved it...

Anyway- it "LOOKS" like i found the problem- the fuel filter. However- since i did also mess with the wires, i could be that fixed it too- so it may vibrate back to not working again...

I'll keep my fingers crossed, but wanted to let you guys know what i'd found!

Thanks!
Ben


Anyway- i'll keep my fingers crossed that it was the filter... At the very least at least i gained some noticeable performance by changing it!

NIX the mallory in favor of a MSD and a MSD blaster coil they have been flawless in my endeavers in the pursuit of vulgar displays of acceleration. have fun make noise :D