Charger just dying??

[jefferson]

Hey guys, own a 68 RT 440 , the problem arose on sat.

Car starts fine, idles fine, everything seems good. Temp sits half, all gauges are good, car has fuel.

Anyways, out cruising on sat and out of nowhere the car starts jumping and spluttering about then dies, im thinking a sparkplug lead had come off, opened the hood, attached. Anyway got back in, fired right up and off i went.
Anyways car was running fine, then i approached a hill, it started jolting and jerking like a mofo then just died. I bought a brand new distributer cap and rotor and hooked that up thinking the old one was busted. Nope, took out again today, same thing. Car drives fine at normal speeds, then when i put my foot all the way down and start getting some speed up it just dies, like the engine gets cut off. Seems to drive fine for the most part, but as soon as i FLOOR it, it dies and i have to re start her back up. Checked over the carby and spark plugs, battery, all brand new, im now starting to think its a fuel issue, ALMOST as if the carby gets smothered or something.

Really strange, this only just started happening on saturday too. I do have an interlock and GPS tracker on the charger, but i fitted those when i first got the car almost 2 years ago, so cant say its either of those causing the issue.

[myk]

Has this been going on for a while now, or is it a recent development?  What ignition system are you running?  How's your coil?   Where's your timing set at? 

[XH29N0G]

Don't know if these help. There are a few times my car has died inexplicably, and they have been different things.

Is the carb full of fuel after it dies?  I had strange behavior show up when my fuel pump pushrod went.  The carb levels would drop and the car would sputter. 

I also had the ignition pop off one time (on and off) because of a faulty coil, when the engine heated up.

Had the car drive and just shut off and then restart while driving down the highway, and etc... turned out to be a connection related to the key switch.

someone on here will have an idea.  I'll keep thinking, but I don't have a specific solution.  What do you mean by carb is smothered (flooded or running out of air?)

[smithenhiven]

I had similar problems with my 70 440 last year, where it would die out of nowhere while driving.  Turned out my carb was vapor locking.  Might wanna give your whole fuel system a check over.  However what was different in my case, is that my car would not easily restart; it basically had to totally cool down before it would refire.

[TPR]

As XH29N0G said, check your fuel pump pushrod.
It wears down after a while and needs replacing.
Happened to my R/T a few years ago with similar symptoms.
TPR

[70 sublime]

Fuel filter plugged up ?
The little breather line on the gas tank fill pipe plugged up and tank is under vacuum ??

[jefferson]

Thanks for the replies guys, am quite certain its fuel related. And yer i was actually thinking it might be the fuel filter being dirty or what not.

Its just strange, for example if im at the lights and get a bit carried away and put my foot all the way down and get the charger hammering, i get no more than about 100meteres before it either starts spluttering/jolting then dies, or just completely dies like someone is controlling it with a remote and turns the car off.

[RECHRGD]

Check for junk/sediment in the gas tank.  It could be getting sucked onto the pickup sock in the tank and cutting off the fuel flow during hard acceleration.....

[6pkrtse]

Bulkhead connector at the firewall. Wiggle the engine harness plug at the firewall from the engine bay while running. See if it sputters or dies. If so, loose connection within the plug.

[b5blue]

Bad points contacts. How old is the condenser?

[Kern Dog]

Bad ground connection at the muffler bearing. 

[marshallfry01]

My 71 CJ5 did the same thing to me a few years ago. I thought it was a firing issue. I replaced points, coil, and a few other things that didn't help it at all. It would sit and idle all day long. I could drive it around 20mph or less with no issues. As soon as I'd get the rpm up to highway speed it would run fine for about 15 seconds then start sputtering and eventually die. Turned out to be trash in the fuel line. It was getting just enough fuel to run at low rpm.

[ACUDANUT]

Bad ground connection at the muffler bearing. 

[RiverRaider]

It could be the fuel pump.  I had two brand new but old stock carter fuel pumps do something like this but, by the second or third restart the car would not run at all.  On the first drive of the year I stopped for fuel at a station that had put ethanol blended fuel in it's tank that was for premium non ethanol. I didn't make it five miles.  Swapped fuel pumps thinking the first one was just a dud but the second one only ran for about the same amount of time.  The diaphragm did not like ethanol and when I took the pumps apart the diaphragms had ballooned. 

[Alaskan_TA]

I had a very similar situation, in my case, the Petronix coil failed.

I put the 50 year old coil back in & it has run awesome since then.

[MRCHARGER68]

Possibilities:

A. The fuel pump is too low volume or diaphragm is weak.

B. There is a restriction in the fuel line somewhere between the pick-up in the tank and the carb itself. i.e. plugged tank filter (sock), line kink (bad bend), fuel filter...

C. Fuel pump push-rod too short (worn) or push-rod cam lobe worn not actuating the pump arm far enough.

D. Carb float hanging up and not allowing fuel bowls to fill or out of adjustment.

I had 440 that for some reason the fuel pump push-rod would hang up in the block and grind my cam lobe off. After my second cam replacement, I converted to an electric fuel pump. Problem solved. When I restored the car in 2012 I replaced all of the fuel delivery components and returned it to stock appearing specs.

The fact that you can start it up after it stalls eliminates some mechanical issues. Enough fuel is being delivered to run but not enough to operate at full power.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

[jefferson]

Thanks for the replies everyone, so i have over the last 2 days including today bought all new fuel goodies, push rod, fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel hoses etc etc, the fella at the autoshop whom sells and works on all these classic chargers reckons that the problem would have been sorted just by replacing the fuel pump , but i may aswell replace everything else while im doing it anyhow!, so will see by next week how we go! Everything else under the hood seems good, no faults or issues that i can see so i am quite certain i have narrowed it down to being fuel related, 99%, just strange how the car had been running fine every trip sometimes twice per week for over 2 years without issue then this happens, could it be the fuel pump has worn down so much that this problem was bound to arise? i understand cars need replacing and need mechanical work done and new parts from time to time to keep them going, so its quite possible that the fuel pump has just deteriorated over the years and it just so happened that on that sat i was out driving it just so happened to KARK it?

[b5blue]

Compare pushrods and take pump apart to see if/what failed, maybe we can learn something? 

[69 500]

You should test your components before replacing them , see if they meet their specific operating specs. then replace 1 item  at a time instead of all at once unless you have already found the cure. Just replacing is a rookie mistake , if you replace everything then you really never find the culprit. I believe the theory behind self maintained is to save money on repairs or self gratification . imangine how you would feel if a real mechanic would just replace everything and the size of the repair bill .

[70 sublime]

And then you change all that stuff up under the hood and find out the car still dies

[ACUDANUT]

I had the same problem 30 years ago. It was a fuel pump push rod.. It got shorter after 15 years and was not pushing the fuel pump diagram enough.

[Todd Wilson]

Is your electronic ignition box losing chassis ground? I had my old 440 truck do that. Drove me crazy for 2 weeks.......... Box was not getting a good ground...........


Todd

[ACUDANUT]

Is your electronic ignition box losing chassis ground? I had my old 440 truck do that. Drove me crazy for 2 weeks.......... Box was not getting a good ground...........


Todd

Good idea also