I have a long-winded way to ask a couple of questions with my wife's 82. I bought the car in PA, shipped it to Australia, had a specialist comply it and give it a good going over. All the usual service parts were changed plus a new battery and '85 fuel pump. The car drives ok but doesn't get used a lot.
Fast forward a year and I'm driving the car on the highway when it 'dies' 5 or 6 times in quick succession then continues to drive normally. A clue for me was that the tacho drops to 0 quickly each time so I'm thinking ignition fault. Next day I pull the ignition apart, clean and check everything but don't see anything wrong, the car still runs ok.
Fast forward six months, my wife is driving when it stumbles a couple of times then dies. This time there is no power, no ignition lights, windows etc. I'm out of town so a friend helps, when he arrives the car starts straight up and drives ok.


I'm currently in Houston for a few weeks so can't check the car but I do have a parts buying opportunity - so here's the questions:


Is there anything particular to an '82 that might connect the two events? I realise that on a 33yo car it could be anything.


What other parts would you consider changing just because they're getting old that could give an intermittent fault? I'm thinking ignition module, fuel pump relay, oil pressure switch, coolant temp sensor - not sure what else. I also need to check all wiring and connections, neutral safety switch etc.


I did read the '82 sticky and there's a lot of help there, but any other advice is appreciated. Thanks, Alan.

 

It sounds like the fuel pump relay is failing.

 

Alan, my 82 "dd" was doing the same thing 2 years ago. Driving on the highway, the headlight bulbs would blink on and off at times, the engine would shut off for a split second or two with everything shutting down then coming back on.
It wasn't until one day on the ride home from work, doing about 65 mph, the engine just shut down, tach went to zero, (I then knew I had a problem) and coasted to the shoulder. No restart, nothing, deader than dead. Towed home, checking the obvious and finally found that under the distributor cap, there was a coil wire that broke, and was not attached. And that was the problem. This gave me an opportunity to replace the coil with a hi-po coil with heavy duty coil wires. Problem solved, never did any of the above mentioned items again. You may not have the same exact problem that I did, but I think that you may have an electrical short somewhere that is causing your problem. I would check all wiring and connections before just replacing parts. It may be something simple, rather than something complicated. JMO
Also thanks for checking the "sticky" above for our 82's. Good luck.....Tom

 

behind the passenger motor head is a connector that has several wires in it .it goes down to the starter.the connector goes bad .take it apart and look for burnt wires.

 

I second what Terry82 said. The connector near the distributor carries the high current wires for power to the car. I ended up pulling the wires from the connector and crimping, soldering, and heat shrink them on my 80 so there is no connector loss.

 

I'll third that. I had the same problem with that connector on two different harnesses.

 

I had a problem with my 79 yesterday, first time the car ever just died completely, every thing. Motor, lights, horn ,radio.Turned out to be a bad ground strap from the negative side of the battery. I shook it and power came back. Seems to be corroded inside the insulation.

 

We should check our ground connections from time-to-time for corrosion like you found, would save us all a lot of headaches down the road....

 

Gents, thanks for all the input, sounds like I don't need to rush into any parts yet, but give the wiring and maybe the ignition a good going over again. This car will get a rolling restoration so there's plenty time yet for more parts... Thanks, Alan.