Motor dies, starts right back up.

[roadman5312]

      Rebuilt 360, mild cam, 904 automatic, factory electronic distributor. Runs good, idles smooth, good power. Ocassionally when you stop and idle it will miss alittle, then die. Put in park, hit the key and it starts right back up and runs fine.  Any idea's ?.  I checked for loose connections, etc. Everything looks good. Car is a 74 Duster.   

[70chall440]

Id look at the fuel system; specifically the bowl level and/or needle and seat. If the fuel level is low, it can slosh out and stave when you come to a stop and cause it to die or if the needle/seat are sticking it isn't keeping the bowl full.

[Chryco Psycho]

Vacuum leak , maybe int the brake booster , or power valve too close to idle in gear , or fuel level

[roadman5312]

Id look at the fuel system; specifically the bowl level and/or needle and seat. If the fuel level is low, it can slosh out and stave when you come to a stop and cause it to die or if the needle/seat are sticking it isn't keeping the bowl full.

                               In an attempt to cure the problem he purchased a new Edelbrock carb, which had no affect on the problem. 

[roadman5312]

Vacuum leak , maybe int the brake booster , or power valve too close to idle in gear , or fuel level

                    New Edelbrock carb, no power valve.  It's also a manual brakes car.  The b!tch of this problem is you never know when it's going to happen, and it starts right back up perfectly.       I'm leaning toward electrical , maybe pickup in the distributor.   

[Chryco Psycho]

reluctor gap

[dougs bs23]

or maybe the coil starting to go bad??  reluctor gap set at .08?

[roadman5312]

or maybe the coil starting to go bad??  reluctor gap set at .08?

                   I thought about coil, I'm going to replace it first. Reluctor gap is good. 

[70chall440]

I once had a coil that would heat soak and act like this, that why I try and mount them off the engine now.

[Bullitt-]

On the far out side I seem to remember someone posting about a loose wire that would short out only when stopping.
Would be easy enough to check, get up to speed & kick it into neutral & let the motor idle, if it doesn't die you would know it's has to do with the motion of stopping at least.

N on the other hand hook up a vacuum gauge you can read while driving & see what's going on there....sticky PCV possibly?

[73_Cuda_4_Me]

When you say it idles good and runs smooth, is that in park? How much RPM drop is there when idling in park and putting it in drive? With mild cam, you can have a fight between mechanical advance and initial timing... In park, not enough load on engine, so RPM pulls mechanical in a bit, but under load, it falls off mechanical curve and stalls. Put it in park with no load, it starts right back up...

Also, fuel pump or filter could be going....

[73_Cuda_4_Me]

How much OEM smog equipment is being used? (EGR, OSAC, idle solenoid?)

Is vacuum advance still being used?

I had an idle issue on the 340 after installing mild cam, and found mechanical and vacuum advance right on the edge for idling... when put auto tranny in gear, both advances would drop off and engine stalled. I disconnected vacuum advance, and set initial to best vacuum (18 initial), then had to recurve dizzy so all in at 35/36 degrees at 3,000 RPM...

[YellowThumper]

I once had a problem with loose wire at the coil. Occasionally it would bounce off enough to cut the engine. As soon as you stopped it settled back and car would go again.  Took a month to finally find it by accident.  Feeling around and it fell off the rest of the way.

[roadman5312]

      He stopped by today, changed the coil, cap and rotor last Friday. All good so far. I wish he had changed them one at a time and tested, but oh well.. Thanks for all the help guys.      I think it was the coil. 

[73_Cuda_4_Me]