hearse cutoff while driving

I was driving my 73 Cadillac hearse home and She just cutoff. This is the second time this has happened. The first time was Sun. I was heading back from the Stone Mountain Ga meet on the interstate running about 70-75 mph and She just cutoff. I pulled to the side of the road and turned the key and She spun over, but wouldn't fire. I waited less than a minute and tried again and She fired up and drove the rest of the way no problem. Tonight I was less than a mile from home coming back from a cruise in. I was going about 45 mph and She just cutoff. I tried to crank Her. She spun over, but would not start. I waited for a minute or so and still would not start. Had to pull Her home and poured some gas in the carb, still nothing. Keep trying and finally She started. Does anybody have any suggestions as what the problem could be? No points, have a points eliminator, that was put on a couple years ago.

coil

bad coil.

Thanks,
Mike

remove one spark plug wire from a spark plug. attach to a spark plug that you have as a spare and lay it on the valve cover. have someone crank the engine over and look for spark. If there is NO spark, then your problem is in in your ignition circuit. If there IS spark, then you have a fuel delivery problem. If you have replaced your points & condensor with an electronic ignition set up, then the likely culprit is the coil or the control module.

sounds about right to me. I always keep the points in the glove box. just in case that new finagled device fails. sounds like some thing is getting warm and opening up shutting off your supply of electricity to a need component. loose connection will do that. but having to let it cool down says it's most likely different then that. Ricks quick check will help determine that it is a electrical problem. the fact that it wont fire right away says to me the switch starting circuit is OK. that leaves the coil distributing circuit.

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Hearse cutoff while driving

I agree that it sounds like a coil issue. When they go it is an intermitent failure that you will experience. Has nothing to do with the coil temp either. You can actually see the intermitent pause it the coil if you have someone crank the starter and watch the spark jump to ground with a wire off as described. It happened to me once at 5 Am just when I though I was going to jump in and go to work. One call to a friend and to my basements parts dept. and I lost only 1 hour from punching in. I think also it may have gone down that way because it was dead of winter and 13 above and you just normally solve problems faster when you are freezing your azz off.

Check the ignition switch, do you have a bunch of keys hanging on the switch? This was my problem and I changed out the switch and I only have two keys on the ring now and have not had a repeat. Just some thing to check. On my Lincoln, the ignition switch on the column was comming apart at the crimps and was giving me a bunch of trouble. Good Luck

John ED Renstrom said:

sounds about right to me. I always keep the points in the glove box. just in case that new finagled device fails. sounds like some thing is getting warm and opening up shutting off your supply of electricity to a need component. loose connection will do that. but having to let it cool down says it's most likely different then that. Ricks quick check will help determine that it is a electrical problem. the fact that it wont fire right away says to me the switch starting circuit is OK. that leaves the coil distributing circuit.

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The reason I had a points eliminator put on was, every year my hearse would not run. Every time it was the points. After the points eliminator, this is the first time She has no started. On the way back from Stone Mountain, I pulled over for no more than a minute before She cranked and ran fine. I don't think I was even half way home.

Kenn Evans II said:

Check the ignition switch, do you have a bunch of keys hanging on the switch? This was my problem and I changed out the switch and I only have two keys on the ring now and have not had a repeat. Just some thing to check. On my Lincoln, the ignition switch on the column was comming apart at the crimps and was giving me a bunch of trouble. Good Luck

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I only have two keys on my hearse's key chain. The one for the doors/ignition and the one for the glove box.

Thanks for all the help. I replaced the coil a couple years ago when I was having points problems. It's probably made in China. I have the old one, I will carry an extra from now on.

I replaced the ignition coil and drove about 40 miles one way to a cruise in on Friday night. Didn't have any problem. The new coil has a lifetime warranty, so I won't have to buy another one if this one ever needs to be replaced.