Suddenly lost igniton

[Ornamental]

The engine started up just fine, ran good, and I drove a couple of miles, then the engine just went dead. Absolutely no hint of firing. After a while, maybe 15 minutes, it fired up, and died just as fast again.
Waited a while again, and it fired up, and died. Again.

I had the Chally transported to my home, left it there for some hours. When I came back, I tried again, and this time it fired up immediately, and kept running just fine. That  car.


Any ideas why? The rotor was new, and I have now replaced the cap. I worry that there's something else wrong than just the cap, like the coil or grounding.

This is what the old cap looked like:

[Chryco Psycho]

I have had a few pick up coils inside the dist do this , it would take about 3 minutes for it to heat up & quit

[tman]

Had similar problem and it was a loose connection to ballast resistor. Most frustrating thing.  It would die and only crank over, but no start.  Then after waiting around, it would start, then die, etc.

[GranCuda1970]

I wish I had a corner on the ballast resister market whomever it is , is makin a killing. I had a glove box full in my Aspen R/t.

[500Stroker]

I had a couple ignition coils go bad with the same problem

[Ornamental]

Looks like it's time to learn how to replace the pick up coil.
Is it as easy as described here?
http://www.fixya.com/cars/t5191570-hard_install_pickup_coil_in

[Chryco Psycho]

yeah , Pry the reluctor off noting which slot the roll pin is in , then remove 4 screws & lift out the advance plate , remove the spring clip under the plate that retains the pick up coil & reverse the proceedure

[Ornamental]

How important is it to get the spacing between the reluctor and the centre of the pick up coil right?
The instructions that came with the pick up coil said to use a non-magnetic feeler blade, which is a bit of a pain to get locally.

Also, there's some sort of snap ring holding the reluctor. It's a PITA to get a hold on and remove. Do I just ignore it, and pull the reluctor up with it in place, or should I remove it first?


Can it be replaced with a more conventional type of snap ring afterwards?


Will the roll pin come loose off the reluctor, or will it stay stuck to it after lifting it off?

Yeah, I know I make a pretty simple operation a lot harder than it really is, but it's my first time, and replacement parts are costly and take time to get. Better to progress a bit slowly then.

[Chryco Psycho]

leave the snap ring in place , the reluctor will slide up off the shaft & the roll pin will usually stay in the reluctor but not always .
 The gap has to be accurate at  .008 , you can use a metal feeler or a piece of paper folded over , a business card is approx .004 thick for example , too close is better then to far but it should not touch

[Ornamental]

It's alive! Thank you all for the help, much appreciated!

After putting everything back together, taking care to have everything on the marks I made before disassembly, the engine ran very rough. So I turned the distributor a little clocwise a few times until it ran good.
Haven't tried to drive it yet, so I don't know the coil was the root problem. Will try to drive it tomorrow when it's likely not to disturb any neighbours (Guess I need to install mufflers at the back too).

[Chryco Psycho]

Cool 

[Ornamental]

No, problem still there. Currently enjoying being in the way at a pretty full parking lot while waiting for things to cool down.

[Chryco Psycho]

so it quit again ?

[Ornamental]

Yup, just stopped. Same as before, waited, almost fired up, then nothing. At least I'm entertaing quite a few people, because by chance, I'm outside the Norwegian museum of science and technology. Even had one guy wondering if I were going to display it at the museum. I prefer to think he wasn't joking, at least that's what I tell myself.

[JayBee]

Something like this happened to my car years ago when I converted from points to Mopar Electronic Ignition. In my case it ended up being an intermittent "orange box". The car would start and run just fine when cold, but would not re-start after it warmed up and I turned it off for a short while. Once it cooled down I was good to go again. Sorry, but I can't remember if it ever died while the engine was running or driving. Don't know what kind of ignition system you have (MSD, whatever) so I'm just throwing out an experience I had.