Sputtering Stalling and Getting Towed

[noKYspider]

Hi all,

Well, I had my first towable offense tonight. My 1975 Spider had been running pretty well overall until today. The weather was nice so we decided to go for a drive. Stopped to top off the gas tank about 2 miles from the house, got back on the road, went about 2 more miles, and the car started to sputter. At first the problem was happening under acceleration. I thought it might just be some bad gas that would blow through but it got worse and eventually the car died.

We sat for a few minutes and got the car fired back up and on the move again. Went another mile or so and the sputtering started again and another stall. This time I pulled over and called for a tow. While we were sitting there I decided to try again and the car eventually started and ran. Since we were waiting for the tow truck I decided not to chance it again but did run the engine up and then eventually went back to idling. After a few minutes of idling the car just died without sputtering, like the ignition had been turned off. After that it wouldn't restart. The tow truck came and brought us back to the house and that's where things stand right now.

Here are some of my thoughts on the potential problems. If you have any suggestions I'd be very appreciative.

Bad gas - The car had sat in the garage with about 3/4 of a tank through a pretty cold winter. There were times I saw on the thermometer in the garage that the temperature was in the 20s. My thought is the tank could have condensed and there might be water in the gas. Another thought is that the gas just went stale and is bad from sitting all winter. That said, I ran the car once before this outing for about 10 miles and had no problems.

Fuel system clogged somewhere - I haven't looked into this possibility yet but I wonder if the fuel filter might be gunked up.

Too much gas in the tank - When I filled up with gas the pump let in more fuel than normal and I could see gasoline in the filler neck. Is it possible that the high fuel level is causing some sort of emissions problem?

Those are my guesses. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

[azruss]

You may want to loosen the gas cap and see if you have a vaccuum issue in the fuel system. Interesting it started right after filling it up.

[AriK]

NoKY,
You may be stuck on the fuel idea since the trouble started after filling up. The sputtering is a good symptom of a fuel problem. However, several months of storage should not cause a bad gas situation, esp with 3/4 tank. While you may want to pull the fuel filter and replace it, you can lead a hose from the line into a container and see how it reacts while someone cranks the engine.
Having seen this result, another area i would look at is the ignition coil. The can suddenly go bad. The fact that you experienced no sputtering, "like the ignition had been turned off" and then restarts a short time later, leads me to believe that you may have a fouled up ignition coil. If you get it running again and quits a short time later check if the coil gets too hot for comfort. If yes, replace the coil, o/w make a search on ohm test, i cant remember the #s.
You need fire and you need fuel delivery. Determine which and perform the appropriate tests.
Ari

[majicwrench]

My car sits outside all winter gets to -30f with no problems. "Bad Gas" is not really an option.
Coils, for all the coils that get changed, they almost never fail. I do this for a living and maybe change one a year. Fuel filters do not plug then unplug. Leave it alone. Before doing anything you need to TEST.
Does it have spark??
Does it have fuel??
Which is it lacking??

[So Cal Mark]

I would first look at the points.Those systems are weak to begin with and if the points have lost their gap your spark will be almost non-existent. Fuel these days with ethanol in it doesn't last very long but that doesn't sound like your issue

[noKYspider]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I assume the points/ignition/coil potential problem causes the car to bog down and sputter under acceleration, otherwise seem OK when idling or with the clutch in, and then just quit completely? Is this a fairly common problem? Does the engine heating up have something to do with it shutting off? Any suggestions on how to check the points gap?

Unfortunately, I don't have much time to mess with figuring this issue out right now, we have a lot of house stuff going on. Another thing is this type of problem is pretty far outside my everyday knowledge so I'm nervous I'll get into something and screw it up even more. Thanks again for the thoughts though. I'll update at some point and let you know what I find out.

[azruss]

point gap is easy to check with a feeler gage. remove the cap to the dizzy. leave all the wires connected. look under the rotor and you will see a shaft with 4 cam lobes. as that rotates, the points open and close. rotate the motor so one of the lobes is lined with the thingy that opens the points so the points are actually open. now use the feeler gage to check the gap. loosen the 2 screws that hold the points to adjust the gap. dont remember what size wrench you need. Either 6 or 8mm.

[johndemar]

While your at it you might as well check all the vacuum hoses off the intake manifold and carburetor. If those are leaking it could cause some of the issues your describing.

[White78]

I had a similar problem. Turned out to be loose wiring on the coil. They would make and loose contact from the engine vibration.

[seabeelt]

Does your car have a catalytic converter??

[noKYspider]

So, I FINALLY got around to messing with the car after almost a year exactly. Guess that's a good sign that I'm busy.

Anyway, it turned out to be the fuel pump had started to go bad. Apparently when it started getting hot it would fail and the engine wasn't getting enough gas. Replaced it and it is working fine now.

Now we're back to enjoying driving around in the nice weather!