Cat failure stops car from running?

[BartusCompater]

majic, at this point I've tested fuel and I've tested spark. Lost spark when it died this last time (and I had fuel), which leads me to think it's ign. components. The new control module solved my old issue, at least for a couple of days. It seems to be a different problem to me now (though still ign.) and the oil in the dist makes sense to me as the culprit at this point.

[124JOE]

if its a magnetic pick up its ok.thats period if its a window type then it needs to be clean.

i sitll think when the mecanic guy said you had a few connection problems
is the area you need to look into

and most of the bigest problems are GROUNDS.

hope this helps.joe

[majicwrench]

Your Thur Aug 11 post does not say anything about having checked for spark and found it lacking. That is the kind of info the rest of us need to be able to offer advice or solice.
"Old Issue" hmm this is the same issue IMO.

Oil in dist may make sense to you, but that does not mean it is a problem. You need to test things. Do you have power on the + side of coil when you are getting no spark?? What is happening on the (-) side of coil??
Keith

[BartusCompater]

I haven't had too much time to spend online lately, and so I had to keep my post brief. I agree that it was lacking. I'll try to make up for that one now:

I did some very rudimentary tests when it died. I unhooked a fuel line and cranked the car with a glove over it to see if it was putting out fuel at the pump, and I also held up the wire from the coil to the block to see if it was creating spark when the car was cranked. There was fuel in the glove but no spark when the car was cranked.

I also hooked up an inline spark tester to one of the spark plugs and got nothing from it when the engine was cranked.

Unfortunately I don't have a multimeter in my little trunk toolkit (so I couldn't run tests on the coil), though that's probably something I should invest in.

When it broke down I happened to be just down the street from a local mechanic, and so I got the car to their lot and left it there. I've been very busy lately and so I just haven't had time to go retrieve it or check on it since then, I'm leaving in the hands of the guys there.

And now that I think about it, I wasn't getting spark from the coil, so maybe the oil in the distributor is irrelevant. However I had a good coil and a good ctrl. module in my trunk and tried switching both of those out to no avail.

[BartusCompater]

I'm sure there are those who are tired of updates on my hopeless situation. It's painful for me to think about the progression of this thread and how little progress I actually seem to be making, much due to my own ineptitude. Any insight is always appreciated however.

When I got it back from the mechanic they had identified the spark plugs as being worn down to the point where they could hardly make spark. They replaced those and did pressure tests on the cylinders, then cleared the oil out of the distributor. They charged me about $150 total for all of this, which seemed a little steep to me for basically just having my spark plugs changed out, but I was hopeful when I left. After driving about 7 miles, however, and then parking the car, it wouldn't start back up. I sat around frustrated for a few minutes, then used some brake cleaner and a rag to get the oil of the distributor that had pooled back up inside (the mechanic didn't feel the need to fix the leak) and the car started back up again.

I let the car sit until yesterday when I got the new seal for the distributor (along with o-ring and gasket). I replaced all of these and the car fired up after some cranking and seemed to be running well. I noticed a little ways down the road that it seemed to be missing every once in a while, or at least not sound like it was running as smoothly as it should at idle. Still, it accelerated and drove perfectly fine so I took on the freeway towards my apartment (from where I work, which is where I worked on the car). On the freeway I got around 6 miles before the whole car seemed to burp a couple of times (with tach spiking and falling two or three times) and then die instantly.

I figure I did something wrong when re installing the distributor. I had made alignment marks and thought I was doing everything correctly, but when I took the cap off after breaking down it seemed that the mark on the shaft was no longer lining up with the mark I made on the distributor body. Furthermore, the rotor seemed to be in a weird place in the rotation. I took out the distributor again and re-aligned all of my original marks but still no beans. Now when I crank the car it cranks normally and occasionally it just makes a chugging noise like something is stopping it from turning. It won't fire up.

I've just lost all gumption at this point and I'm going to tow it to a mechanic down the road from where I just moved to in Seattle who apparently owns and drives a Spider. I've had zero positive experiences with mechanics so far with this car but I'm hoping that since he owns one himself things might be a little different.

[majicwrench]

Bartus,
Hopefully the new mechanic can help you out. There are good honest hardworking mechanics, there are incompetent mechanics, and their are those that are basicly thieves. Which is true in a lot of businesses.
When the car is dead (which it seems to be a lot) that is when you need to test things. If done in some sort of logical fashion, you will quickly reach a solution. But it is a one-step-at-a-time process. And it can be really frustrating when you don't quite have the right tools and knowledge. We all feel your pain.

OK, best of luck. Let us know what new mechanic says.
Keith

[BartusCompater]

The timing on the distributor was off not allowing the car to start, and the magnetic pickup wires are apparently faulty, which the mechanic said was causing it to die after running.

Diagnosis, setting the timing, and replacing the pickup wires is going to be a total of around 300 dollars, but I told them I'd just put the pickup wires in myself since it's easy and I've done it before.

[124JOE]

if the timing in the dizzy was wrong.you need to check your timing belt

it may have skiped.joe

[BartusCompater]

Drove out of the mechanic's shop, car died about 10 minutes.

Coincidentally the mechanic who worked on it happened to be driving home along the same route and he pulled over to help., and so we drove a little bit with the car sputtering and dying a restarting. So now finally a mechanic has seen what is actually going on and realizes how elusive my problem is. Up until now I don't think of my mechanics have driven it long enough to replicate the problem that I've been experiencing.

Anyway, I'm desensitized to this kind of disappointment at this point. I'm gonna let it cool down and nurse it back to the mechanic now that he knows what's actually going on.

[124JOE]

years ago i ordered a new belt and figured id wait to put it on.well last year i had some trouble with the main ground,
but i couldnt find the problem after tinkering around for a few months it got cold out.so i put it off untill this year.
when i found all the problems "one at a time" she ran great "still does"

1 a bad timing belt -it wont stay timed-as soon as you rev it it will jump. its hard to say how long it will take to do this job i
can do it in 2 hours NOW.
2 worn spings under rotor -didnt retun all the way.for advance. 20 min

3 exposed wire for the electric ignition-caused it to shut off -taped it up under 5 min

4 bad ground on batt -my bad i changed the side post to top post.it wasnt completly tight. under 5 min


.joe

[BartusCompater]

Mechanic paid to have it towed back and looked at again. This time they replaced the ign. coil, saying that it was suffering thermal breakdown. Didn't charge me.

Tomorrow morning's commute will decide whether or not the diagnosis (which I thought I had already ruled out) is correct.

[majicwrench]

Possible, but not likely coil is breaking down. Let us know how it goes.
Keith

[md88plt]

Had the same problem and it only occured after the engine was warm. It drove me crazy because the car would run fine until the engine was warm. When the engine got warm power would disapate until there was no power. The cat would become red hot from the unburnt fuel. I tested all the igntion components and found that the new distributor cap was defective. I notice a large resistance on my ohm meter at the cap contacts when the cap was warm. I replace the cap with an Itallian made cap. The defective cap was a Beck Arnley brand purchased from local parts store.

[BartusCompater]

I've driven the car ~60-70 miles now with no problems with the new coil and mag. pickup wires. Starting to think my problem has been solved.

[WYSpider]

Great news. Hopefully it takes care of it.