Any ideas why my 84 Turbo Sunbird would suddenly die and not restart while driving? The only thing out of the ordinary was the temperature - 95 degrees outside.

No DTCs. Fuel appears to be flowing. Plenty of battery power, starting to sound like ignition to me...

Here comes the tow truck again.

timing belt or ignition. Cranking sound normal? Try pulling coil wire and letting it jump a 1mm (dime's width) gap to ground.


-->Slow

Timing belt has about 2K miles on it...

If I pull a plug wire and hold the plug against the engine block and have someone turn it over I should have spark, right?

I have not diagnosed ignition much... Coil and distributor are pretty old. Cap and wires are new.

I was hoping for fuel pump so I could justify a high flow one...

slowolej-

Are you thinking ignition module or coil?

Ignition module, coil, pickup coil, and rotor inside distributor are all possibilities.

Pull coil wire at distributor and put close to ground. If wire jumps across a 1/8" gap the coil is making plenty of spark, the pickup coil is good, the module is probably good (though not definitely). If you get spark there, replace coil wire and pull plug wire to do same thing. If you get spark at plug wire, try one more. If spark at 2 wires, the ignition system should be strong enough to at least try and start the car.

If no spark at the coil wire, you need to determine if pickup coil, ignition coil, or module is faulty.

service manual should have "cranks but won't start" in section 6E. It's usually very quick about getting to heart of the problem.

hth
-->Slow

Thanks Slow-

I will try and get on it next weekend, this one has gotten away from me.

If the ignition module was at fault it should show a code 43,The old cavs ign mod only acted up will idling and actually set the code,I cleared it and it never came back.I still bought the new part which took 10 min to install and now for the harder work to do on the old j.I would think more inline of coil,who knows sometimes it varies car to car.

Well, I went over it and checked for loose connections and rubbed wires. I found nothing. I pulled the coil wire from the distributor and put it back on, the car fired right up. I have not driven it, but it seems like something may be loose. As far as I know, the distributor and coil date back to1990, but that really is only 60K miles ago.

How much is the distributor assembly and the ignition coil to replace? It might be a good idea to do thatas the wiring coming off of them looks pretty tired.

Now that the car starts, does that rule out anything?

Paul, I'm changing a 91 TBI Sunbird to 92-04 PFI configuration. I'll be using the DIS, ecm, wiring harness, and a/c compressor from the later vehicle. All of the old parts are "junk" to me. The only car the distributor and coil will fit is my 89 turbo and I've already got 2 spare distributors for it. I'd rather see these parts get put to use than go to the scrap pile for the recycler. If you can use any of this, lmk.

-->Slow

slo-

Will those work on my 84? If so, I could use the ac compressor, coil, and distributor.

Could you send me some pics and I will verify fitment?

plsteepe123@comcast.net

Thanks for thinking of me.

slo-

Sorry - I re-read the ac compressor. How about the wiring in between the coil and distributor?

I'll try to get some pictures by Sunday. Whatever you want, compressor included, is yours.

-->Slow

I went over the wires, and unplugged and plugged back in the coil wire and it fired right up.

Pretty Odd if you ask me.

Check for corrosion and looseness of the terminals.

I wouldn't have faith that it's fixed. No long trips without tools.

Pictures should be up today. There were too many things going on this weekend.

-->Slow

Been cruising with no issues...

That's good news. Maybe the poltergeist has moved on to haunting an old K-car.

Still haven't snapped pictures. Got car fired up Thursday but too busy to get back to it.

Lets just say I am not going anywhere without tools, the phone, and the AAA card. I am continuing to Mod, so we will see what shakes out.

Hoping to get customer CAI measured and cut this weekend still. Then I can get it welded and we are one step closer to being ready for the intercooler install.