Jonas240z Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Here's the problem: my 240z stalls after 5-10mins of use...i'm no mechanic but i'm pretty sure it's electrical ( using common sense ). The thing is that the day before this started happening i drove it about 35 mi. to LA and 35 mi. back home with no problems at all. I tryed to look to see if something got disconnected or if something is shorting out, but no luck. Everything looks ok. What happens is that i start the car....no problem, runs fine, idles, revs up perfectly but after a few mins. of driving it just suddenly stalls. Actually sometimes it stalls and then it comes back to life and then stalls again....as if i was switching the car on and off. Also after it stalls, it's hard to start it back up but if i wait like 30 sec or a min. it starts fine and then after another min it stalls. Is it the battery, the alternator or volt reg. Please help!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 I think it can be the coil or the ballast or it can even be a vacuum problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas240z Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 I don't know if it's the coil...since it's pretty new (crane's PS60) and i removed the ballast not to long ago because i have an electronic ign. conversion. Can it be the fact that i removed the ballast? Also my alt makes a high pittched whinning noise, so i think it's not working right. All connections are tight so...i'm clue less! How do i check ifto see it's the coil? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Not to famillar with aftermarket coils but the stock setup had a external ballast. Does the one you have, have an internal ballast? If so then you don't need to worry about that. Might want to check the spark plugs and the wires. If there is not ballast at all then it will cause premature wear of the plugs. Th ballast is a type of relay that steps down the power to the coil. When starting, power is unrestricked to help starting in cold weather and then the power is stepped down to reduce plug wear (electrolosis). It will work and run for a while but it will eventually have inconsistant spark because of plug wear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Oh is this a V8? Check optical trigger and see if it has consistent fuel pressure. could the fuel pump. Checking condition of plugs can confirm fuel issue also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240ZR Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Did you use a holly Red or blue Electric fuel pump? if so thats your problem.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas240z Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 The ballast is external (stock) but i removed it not to long ago and it ran for a while without a problem. The plug wires are almost new, like 3 months old. By the way my car is powered by an L28 not a V8 (which i would love to get one day). I'll check the plugs, wires, coil to see what's wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas240z Posted February 13, 2006 Author Share Posted February 13, 2006 This is what i found out today. First i did some voltage test: Battery charge was 13.01 V w/the engine off and it was charging at 16.4 or so at idle and 17.88-18.00 at speed. That's not normal right? And so i tested the Alternator and it was putting out almost 19V at speed (1100 RPM)...WTF??? Also i noticed that the drive belt was a little loose (almost nothing). So i fixed that and i also connected the ballast back on. I test drove the car at slow speed for 1 min. and then i speed up and i hear a noise kinda like a backfire....but then all was good so i drove it for 2 miles and pulled over to check my adjustments. I saw that one of the battery caps that covers the battery cells was missing. So that' what made the noise earlier. The car didn't stall after driving it back home, but now i'm missing the cap and i don't know why it blew off. Do i change my alt? Should i replace it with a 280zx one that's internally reg.?? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 Check your spark plugs. The backfiring can be because the plugs don't have enough electricity to produce a consistant spark with the ballast now. Do to running without a ballast for so long, it causes the metal (depending on the type of metal used for the electrode)to burn off because of the higher voltage or move metal from one point of the gap to the other. If you know anyhting about electro-plating then this is whats happening. You just need to sheck the plugs and maybe get new ones. As for the alternator. I don't think you need to worry about that, thats about how much my jeep is at for voltage readings. Might as well replace the battery though. When an alternator starts to fail it looses voltage amount produced. Could be you voltage regulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 This is what i found out today. First i did some voltage test: Battery charge was 13.01 V w/the engine off and it was charging at 16.4 or so at idle and 17.88-18.00 at speed. That's not normal right? And so i tested the Alternator and it was putting out almost 19V at speed (1100 RPM)...WTF??? Also i noticed that the drive belt was a little loose (almost nothing). So i fixed that and i also connected the ballast back on. I test drove the car at slow speed for 1 min. and then i speed up and i hear a noise kinda like a backfire....but then all was good so i drove it for 2 miles and pulled over to check my adjustments. I saw that one of the battery caps that covers the battery cells was missing. So that' what made the noise earlier. The car didn't stall after driving it back home' date=' but now i'm missing the cap and i don't know why it blew off. Do i change my alt? Should i replace it with a 280zx one that's internally reg.?? Thanks[/quote'] Sounds like you have several problems. Without a working voltage reg your voltage can get out of range, the only real problem with this is that you could burn out anything electrical and (in your case) overheat the battery which led to the poped off cap. IF you have a V8 for Pete's sake get a $30 alternator from summit for your engine and a bracket and just go 1 wire hookup. (Search) Next if you have electonic distributor you don't have points, (and I don't believe the electroplating theory is there a document source for that?), to my knowledge, the balast was only to protect the coil. MSD and other aftermarket brands sell coils that do not need balast. Yes your ignitor is probably toast, and if you have an aftermarket distributor, then you'll have to go to that manufacturer and try to get warrenty service or replacement ignitor. This could have been caused by the voltage levels you are describing but don't tell them that. Any updates? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK-Z Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 He has a L24 engine. The electroplating theroy actually happend to my friends toyota when he was running platimun plugs (pieces of crap, pore conductor) I took out one of the plugs and there was a glob of metal on the center electrode and half of the ground electrode what missing (put 2 and 2 together), also happend one a couple of bike that I was doing maintainence on. MSD should of stated somewhere in the documentation on whether it had an internal ballast or a step down relay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas240z Posted February 16, 2006 Author Share Posted February 16, 2006 Well i checked everything else electrical, such as te spark plugs and wires. Wires are in perfect condition, the plugs looked pretty darn good for the SU carbs that power my L28, they were light brown with a bit of grayish, and the electrode was pretty clean. I'll just go ahead and change the battery and upgrade to the 280zx alt. But my original question was: What can cause my car to just stall all of the sudden for no apperant reason? I haven't driven the car since the battery blew up on me so i have no idea if i fixed the stalling problem. Can it be the fact that i was running without the ballast? Or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 balast would have an effect on spark plug voltage, usually the plugs will stt 30kV, without the balast it might go up to as much as 35kV, but electroplating? Assuming it could the balast would not effect that much, the balast lowers the voltage to the coil from 14 or so (which is what your alternator should be putting out) to 12. Take the regulator out completely and I bet you'd have 19V, There are contacts in the regulator which are obviously no longer working. As you said, your car would NOT stall unexpectedly, you said it would stall when it heated up for a while, sounds like the ignitor to me, but by adding the balast back, it might not get as hot and probably is marginal now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonas240z Posted February 18, 2006 Author Share Posted February 18, 2006 Yes, you could be right. This is what i think happened and created all this set of problems. My voltage regulator was not working right so it let a high voltage current to reach the coil and electronic ignition module (An old *** XR700 unit made by Alison... before crane made them), and since i took the ballast off i made things worse cousing the module to malfunction. So my question is, should i replace the XR700 for a Pertronix unit since I'm gonna get a rebuilt dizzy anyways? And also replace the Alt with a 280zx to get rid of the stupid voltage reg. ? Thanks for all the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonomaz Posted February 19, 2006 Share Posted February 19, 2006 I'm surprised you all missed this. (boy don't I sound cocky!!!) Your fuel filter is plugged. Pull it out and try to blow through it. You should be able to blow though it like it is just a short piece of hose. If it feels like you can't move any air at all, it's plugged. What happens is the fuel dribbles though the filter to the carbs and the bowls act as a resevoir until you stand on the throttle for a while and the filter won't flow that much. Chugga chugga. Let it sit for a moment and the filter alows the bowles to fill up again and off you go for a few minutes. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Yes, you could be right. This is what i think happened and created all this set of problems. My voltage regulator was not working right so it let a high voltage current to reach the coil and electronic ignition module (An old *** XR700 unit made by Alison... before crane made them), and since i took the ballast off i made things worse cousing the module to malfunction. So my question is, should i replace the XR700 for a Pertronix unit since I'm gonna get a rebuilt dizzy anyways? And also replace the Alt with a 280zx to get rid of the stupid voltage reg. ? Thanks for all the help! Alt- yes Reg - yes if you have the money, this old one is, no doubt, a roadside letdown waiting to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endurorider Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Check the fuel filter, as mentioned earlier. replace the regulator for the ovcer voltage.then if you persist to have problems, I would suspect a bad ignition module. 240z 450 hp v8. Master Auto Tech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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