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I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! [message #205415]

Sun, 21 April 2013 12:22

rjw

Messages: 697
Registered: September 2005

Karma:

Senior Member

Well it happened again. Friday afternoon (4/19), on Northbound I95 about 65 miles South of Savannah, GA the Olds 455 died. It stopped once, restarted briefly then decided to call it quits for good. As I coasted to a stop on a nice wide part of I95, next to a weigh station, I was reminded why I spent a day last month installing a backup vacuum pump. What if this had happened going downhill in West Virginia instead of a part where Georgia is very flat? You get only 1 or 2 brake applications without vacuum before there is next to no braking. I would not have been able to stop on a steep hill without running off the road. Or, it could have been in the rain at night like when it happened to me in 2011 during "the incident at mile marker 123" in Michigan. I was lucky then to coast to a stop in a sort of safe area. How about an engine/vacuum failure in traffic where I would have to maneuver without good brakes coasting through traffic to get to the side of the road?

This was the fifth time in about 15 years (3 times in the last 2 years) that I've experienced a sudden and complete power failure. This was the first time that I wasn’t alone when it happened. Dear wife and our mechanically gifted cat were with me. They were both pretty good about it when I explained that this was just like the time it died last fall on the way back from Amana. That time it quit I was able to coast safely to a stop on the side of I80. I was able to restart after I let things cool off. I went to a vacant gas station, swapped distributor covers and finished the trip home. I never was sure what was wrong.

I thought before leaving on this trip that I had everything covered to avoid such a thing. I have a newly rebuilt 455, newly rebuilt distributor, new cover, rotor, module and new ignition wires. Plus I have Howell TBI fuel injection with EBL. All those components, including fuel lines and pump are less than 5 years old.

First thing I did was pull the air cleaner off and try a start. No fuel on the butterflies when trying to start. However, with fuel injection that doesn’t mean anything because with no engine start, the fuel pump shuts off. Nuts, the new/old laptop I’m running to monitor the engine wasn’t setup for the fuel pressure transducer. Get out my netbook that has fuel pressure setup. Yep have fuel pressure that slowly drops when trying to start. That means I have fuel and the filter is OK. Next to check is spark. Hook up spark tester to #1 and no spark! Smart cat in the back I’m sure is saying something about “distributor”. Good thing I have a complete spare distributor on board. I don’t really want to install that yet so I’ll start swapping parts. First is module swap. During that process I notice a very loose connection for the B+ lead. It won’t stay in the connector. That can’t be good. Maybe that’s what happened last fall. But this is a new rebuilt from a very reputable rebuilder. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes. I decided to swap harnesses (between distributor base and over) and see what happens. Crank it and bingo it starts up. All this took about 90 minutes and we were on our way again. The passengers were impressed that I acted like I knew what I was doing. The cat was happy that we had the Onan running so we could have air conditioning while I worked.
We are now safely in Savannah, with the wedding a few hours away. Oh and by the way got a great deal on a weekend (Friday to Monday) car rental from Enterprise. I rented a Toyota Prius hybrid for just $38 total. Plus they picked me up from the campground.

Moral of the story is don’t assume that because something was newly rebuilt that everything is OK. Check all the connectors on electrical stuff. And strongly consider a vacuum pump if you don’t already have one.

Richard
76 Palm Beach
SE Michigan
www.PalmBeachGMC.com

Roller Cam 455, TBI+EBL, 3.42 FD, 4 Bag, Macerator, Lenzi (brakes, vacuum system, front end stuff), Manny Tranny, vacuum step, Tankless + OEM water heaters.

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[Message index]

		I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: rjw on Sun, 21 April 2013 12:22
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Mr ERFisher on Sun, 21 April 2013 12:37
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Ken Henderson on Sun, 21 April 2013 16:35
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Arthur Mansfield on Sun, 21 April 2013 17:27
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: mike miller on Sun, 21 April 2013 18:46
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: jhbridges on Mon, 22 April 2013 09:17
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Mr ERFisher on Mon, 22 April 2013 09:35
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: jhbridges on Mon, 22 April 2013 09:46
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Mr ERFisher on Mon, 22 April 2013 10:06
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: jhbridges on Mon, 22 April 2013 13:03
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Kingsley Coach on Mon, 22 April 2013 13:49
		Re: [GMCnet] I broke down again, but didn't have to be towed! By: Mr ERFisher on Mon, 22 April 2013 14:18

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