Car died at traffic light!

[VitaminCRR]

I took the wife for a cruise this afternoon on probably one of the last nice days of the year. We had gone about 20 minutes and were sitting at a red light in traffic and out of nowhere the engine died abruptly. No slow idling down and quitting, just dead. I put it in park and hit the key and it started right up. We stayed on side roads the rest of the way home and didn't have anymore troubles. I had taken a 2 hour road trip on Friday and came back on Saturday and didn't have any problems (this is now Sunday). Now I'm kind of afraid to take it on any more drives till I get it figured out. I feel like it is an electrical problem but will listen to any ideas anyone might have. 69 Roadrunner, 383, auto trans.

 

[dadsbee]

Funny, happened to me today after ripping through the S turn on our road. First time Therapy has died. Ran like a dream afterward so I figure I jammed the carb float up going through the S turn. I left it in gear and then she refired, took a bit to allow throttle and then all was well. Stayed around the block for a bit and then put 85 miles on her flawless.

 

[Hubbarocks]

Id start by checking your grounds. My mind goes straight to an electronic issue if it didn't sputter out. My 2 cents

 

[JimCoronette]

Check the middle connector on the bulkhead. If you lose the ammeter connection, it will die right away.

 

[66Satellite47]

Bulkhead connector, bad chassis ground, or bad ground on ECU if you have an electronic ignition upgrade.

 

[dart4forte]

I’m surprised someone didn’t say it’s your timing chain. Check the bulkhead connection.

 

[Bb70charger500]

Had this. Issue in my 300 the balasec resistor was broken ever so slightly and as long as it touched we were good it vibrates the wrong way car died ! Was checking everything finally decided to pull it and look under it as soon as I pulled it off fire wall and looked I saw it was junk .

Cheap fix easy to check!
Good luck

 

[Chargered]

I also would suggest double checking to make sure all your grounds are really good. I've had that problem before and it was a bad ground.

 

[VitaminCRR]

So, a lot of answers about the bulkhead connector. I looked at it today and the fusible link connector is corroded and the violet connector next to it is a little corroded. Do I pull the individual wires out of the bulkhead and clean them or pull the whole bulkhead off of the firewall and take it apart and clean? BTW, thank you for all the responses and ideas. I will check all this stuff out.

 

[Kern Dog]

I’m surprised someone didn’t say it’s your timing chain. Check the bulkhead connection.

????
If it restarts and runs normally, I don't see how one would suspect the timing chain.

 

[HawkRod]

So, a lot of answers about the bulkhead connector. I looked at it today and the fusible link connector is corroded and the violet connector next to it is a little corroded. Do I pull the individual wires out of the bulkhead and clean them or pull the whole bulkhead off of the firewall and take it apart and clean? BTW, thank you for all the responses and ideas. I will check all this stuff out.

My thought is if you found one corroded wire there are more. for peace of mind, I would go through the whole thing.

An important part when you are done: Use dielectric grease packed in all the connectors when you put them together to avoid this in the future!

 

[dart4forte]

????
If it restarts and runs normally, I don't see how one would suspect the timing chain.

I was being factious

 

[dart4forte]

Had this. Issue in my 300 the balasec resistor was broken ever so slightly and as long as it touched we were good it vibrates the wrong way car died ! Was checking everything finally decided to pull it and look under it as soon as I pulled it off fire wall and looked I saw it was junk .

Cheap fix easy to check!
Good luck

Yes, didn’t consider that

 

[66Satellite47]

So, a lot of answers about the bulkhead connector. I looked at it today and the fusible link connector is corroded and the violet connector next to it is a little corroded. Do I pull the individual wires out of the bulkhead and clean them or pull the whole bulkhead off of the firewall and take it apart and clean? BTW, thank you for all the responses and ideas. I will check all this stuff out.

I pulled the connector apart and sanded both sides as well as I could. Very thin sand paper 400 I think, worked great until I completely replaced it.

 

[Bb70charger500]

Yes, didn’t consider that

Hey man why I get the red x ?

 

[Ron H]

I'd say ya got a lot of fine advice. I had on going hassles with my ignition wire post new engine harness and figured the old skanky BH was likely an issue. I pulled out the old BH installing a new one. I was happy to find the original female connections were in fine shape, gave them a vinegar bath and some sanding stick treatment, then using a mule male prong refitted each connector to get rid of any slop. I noted that the ig wire had been getting undue heat due to poor connection. Packed with di-el grease and good to go...ahh for a while! The demon came back! After some scalp scratching pulled out the ig wire from the 'new' engine harness to find one effing shitty crimping arrangement as the wire came free from the crimp. So re-did this and reconnected - so far - so good. I'd say (to state the obvious) quality matters when getting engine and other harnesses...I could tell ya another story on this with my rear harness tail light sockets. Crap! Also added an extra ground wire that solved a problem in the rear. Yep, assure solid-solid grounds, assume nada, and check all wiring connections for premo fit...anything 'old' double check...could say ask how I might a learned...

 

[VitaminCRR]

In searching for a solution to my issue I am reading a lot about the amp meter bypass and related wiring on the madelectric site and I have one question. Do I need to pull the dash to get to the amp meter? I can't see how I could solder the 2 wires together from under the dash. Or does the instrument cluster come out easily?

 

[Ron H]

Not know what car you have, but on mine you need to get clear to the back of the gauge as wires are bolt connected. Cluster has to come out for this work unless looking at rewiring to the leads at the BH. This wouldn't 'bypass' the BH. On mine for time being I've just bypassed the gauge leaving it dead as there was overheating issues and significant damage to the BH. I've set up wiring to do this; but not working on connecting yet. There are MANY nice posts on the forum about how this is done.

 

[VitaminCRR]

I tore the bulkhead apart today and found lots of corroded connections. Most notably the fusible link connection. In fact, when I took the middle gang connector off the fusible link connector broke off it was so corroded. So I got a new fusible link and some replacement GM56 connectors and will put it back together tomorrow. I also got a couple of new ballast resistors, one installed and a backup. I'm going to do the amp meter bypass but not till I grow balls big enough to start tearing into the dash.

 

[Slap Stick]

DO NOT USE DIELECTRIC GREASE ON THE CONTACT SURFACES OF AN ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR!
Dielectric grease does NOT conduct electricity.