Stall out issue

[davefrancisco]

Hello All,

Hope all is well with everyone.

I have an issue that I'm hoping you guys can help with. last evening I took a short trip to pick up some food, 2-3 miles max. This was in the evening and the car ran very strong. When I got back in the car it started fine, turned on the lights and in about 1 minute's time the car stalled. I turned it over again and got it to start however no head lights or dash lights. Emergency flashers work fine. What I find odd is the starter turned over without issue every time I needed to restart the car, but no lights.

This pattern repeated until I was able to get home. Stalling would happen as the engine reached about 3k RPM's in second gear. From there it would start again, then stall after a short time.

The car is a 1977 Fiat spider 1.8, aftermarket electronic ignition, electric fuel pump and rebuilt carb about a year ago.

Thanks in advance

Dave

[gschwab]

I would definitely check the ignition switch, as far as I know, the emergency flasher ist not powered through the ignition switch, thus working reliably. The contact for the starter solenoid is different from the contacts for other components of the car (ignition, lights...). The switches do get overloaded and the contacts can go bad over time, which might cause a bad contact and low voltage for lights, ignition, etc.
Hope this helps!

[davefrancisco]

Thanks for the support. Much appreciated.

Dave

[davefrancisco]

@Gschwab, thanks for the tip, and it seems you are correct with the ignition switch diagnoses. In my case the PO sourced 12V from the ignition switch terminal that feeds the lights for the fuel pump. So when the switch connection opened, the fuel pump lost power and the car stalled. During restarts enough fuel was added to the carburettor to allow me to move another 100 yards or so.

For now I moved that connector to the terminal where the brown wire is located. Drove around yesterday with no issues. Next is to find a new source for the fuel pump power supply.

Thanks again

Dave

[gschwab]

Glad to hear that I could help!
Good luck with getting everything back in proper working order.