Intermittent Engine Stalling

[70rag383]

I have this intermittent issue where the car stalls while I'm driving. When I jiggle the ignition harness under the dash (the flat white switch connector), I hear a clicking noise from the glovebox area. Then I am able to restart the car.  Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Burdar]

Loose connections are notorious there.  I had an issue with that connection too.  Pull the connector apart and "adjust" the female terminal ends so that the "male" ends fit tightly inside.  Use some dielectric grease on the connections when you plug it back together.

When it dies on you, do some testing before you start wiggling wires.  The blue wire at that connector should have power when the key is in the "run" position.  That was my problem.  The connection at the "blue" wire was loose and the car just shut off.  The car did restart and I got it back home.  Lucky for me, my foot just happened to bump the connector when I got out of the car and the engine "stumbled".  I found the problem quickly.

[70rag383]

Loose connections are notorious there.  I had an issue with that connection too.  Pull the connector apart and "adjust" the female terminal ends so that the "male" ends fit tightly inside.  Use some dielectric grease on the connections when you plug it back together.

When it dies on you, do some testing before you start wiggling wires.  The blue wire at that connector should have power when the key is in the "run" position.  That was my problem.  The connection at the "blue" wire was loose and the car just shut off.  The car did restart and I got it back home.  Lucky for me, my foot just happened to bump the connector when I got out of the car and the engine "stumbled".  I found the problem quickly.

Thanks Burdar.  I pulled the connector apart. The connections look ok but I will adjust female terminals as you suggested. Any idea why I hear the clicking noise from the glovebox when I jiggle the connector? Isn't that where the heater blower switch is connected?

[Chryco Psycho]

Coat all the connections with di-electric grease both at the base of the column & the firewall the intermittent problem may disappear .

[70rag383]

I found that the female connections for the red wire and the blue wire were actually very "soft".  I removed them from the plastic connector and found even after I tightened them they were so flimsy they would not grab onto the bullet connector on the male side. So I decided to bypass the plastic connector altogether. I  removed the red and blue wires from the male side of the plastic connector and soldered/heat shrunk the connections for each wire.  A much more reliable connection. Not so maintainable however in case I ever need to separate the harnesses.

[Burdar]

That was a common "fix" back in the day.  On my original harness, the blue wire was cut and the connector was bypassed.  Hopefully that is your issue.  In the future you could get some male/female Packard56 terminals and connect them that way.  It's a tighter connection and it will still let you disconnect the wires for service.

[Caparco]

 Q: did you do the alternator bypass wiring upgrade? I recently had the same problem, clicking and stalling , frying fuses etc, your radio cut out in you at all sorts of weird times too?
  Anyway it fixed my problem, but while working under the dash I noticed my temp gauge wire just hanging.. so a loose unconnected issue may be it too.
  Now my new issue is I get a sputter on acceleration! Didn't do it before. Maybe my newly non-working oil gauge is the culprit. Or some other wire I must of elbowed.
 

[70rag383]

Yes I ran the bypass and it fixed most issues. Check out how fried my bulkhead connector (first photo) was where the alternator wire connected into the interior of the car. This a brand new connector and wiring harness with only 5,000 miles on it!  After I ran the bypass wire directly to the alternator I extended the length of the original alternator wire and ran it straight through the gaping hole in bulkhead connector. 

Burdar had some good advice for the intermittent engine stalling issue which I followed. The problem was with the white plastic ignition wire connector under the dash (see the second photo). Both the red wire and the blue wire were making poor connection within the connector. I would jiggle the connector and it would make the engine stall. So i removed the red (battery feed)  and blue wire (ignition run) from each of the connector ends and reconnected each wire pair with a soldered/shrinkwrapped splice. A better solution for serviceability would be to use Packard 56 connectors instead of splicing.   Regardless , I have not had another engine stalling issue since. thanks @Burdar .  So I would check your connector to ensure all of the wire connections in the plastic connector are very snug, especially the blue wire.

[70rag383]

sorry, here is the first photo of the bulkhead connector. I need to learn how to post photos

[Caparco]

Dang!! That is nasty.. wow, and the condition of your wires and car look great, mine is junkyard appearance. So I really need to get under there and re-wire. That dash harness from YearOne looks so nice.. if I can only get up the 700$ for it.. I'll have to look into that packard64 thing, no clue what that is.. and picking up some dielectric grease too.. this should save me money for a while..cause I got all sorts of things going on under there in that spaghetti mess!! Radio cuts out, stalling sputtering.
  Nice read here though, thanks guys

[Caparco]

 

[70rag383]

@Caparco I learned a lot about the electrical system through this exercise.  I know the YearOne harnesses are expensive but they are mandatory if you are dealing with the original wiring and you want any kind of reliability. My other recommendation is once you upgrade the harnesses, run the ammeter bypass to take the load off of the bulkhead connector (see how burnt mine was after just 2 years and 5,000 miles).  The ignition connector is also a weak point. Look how burnt your connector is for the notorious blue wire. Mine was not burnt, it was just loose, that's why I removed the blue one and the red one from the plastic connector to get a better connection.  BTW, the packard 56 connectors (male and female) can be purchased from any auto parts store.