gotta little certificate and everything, was in the bridge of the Spirit

What kind of hole shot was she good for?!

Well... it's not the fuel filter. And I guess it's not random. What it does is wait until I think I have fixed it and start goofing around and get far from the dock, THEN it happens. 

Weather popped out nice today and I got all the chores done so what the hey. Put a new fuel filter in, dropped it in the water, tied off to the dock and said "I'm not leaving this spot, period." Fired up the motor, let it idle for 20 minutes. Wiggled the chit out of all the coil and ballast wires, the dizzy the condensor ... nada. Had a nice chat with some tree huggers in a rowboat. Wiggled the chit out of the wires again. Turned off the engine. Started again. Said OK it WAS the fuel filter. Let off the dock.. tooled around in the NWZ. All is good. Total time that motor has been running is way more than any of the previous 2X.  Get out of NWZ and head up river only 1000 feet, start circling round and round. All is good. Do this for 5 minutes. Get more confidence. Start ripping up and down near the dock but get farther and farther away.... All is good. Problemo must be solved.

45 minutes into it I am thinking about how much fun to make this post and say it was just the fuel filter!



And of course, that's when it stops dead - no cough no nuttin.

But at least this time I had something seem like cause and effect. I tried restart without really doing anything and it wouldn't fire. I jiggled the ballast and coil wires - fired right up. So just like yall been saying, next time I'm taking new resistor and diff coil with me. That won't be for at least a week. Gotta make some money first.

You dont have a unilite do you, they can stop and reset themselves. did you hot wire it yet?

OC are you thinking the same thing I am... sucking the fuel line shut 

The engine shuts off, hose opens up.  vvrrrooommmm till you put rpms to it.

That even happened to my FORD.....

Dang....that's too bad you don't have a fuel pressure gauge.(hint,hint,hint).

Although Jeremy brings up a good possibilty about the fuel hose collapsing on itself. Didn't think of that, and under use, more heat, definate possibility, but IMO I would think it would spit and sputter to a stop were it a fuel issue, even a filter.

I've seen stranger things with ballast resistors. It's not necessarily a case of they either 'work or don't' (Don't know who said that). They are a wirewound deal encased in ceramic.  A small break or crack in the winds could easily be affected by vibration or even temperature (Or water). As I said before, worked on many Mopars with the things, and that was always the first part replaced. (Cost like $8.95 back then)

Also could easily be the coil breaking down, as someone mentioned. Cheap fixes either way. While you're at it, I'd replace the coil to dizzy wire, cap and rotor as well. Might have wiggled that wire, which would indicate the coil, the wire, or the cap connection as the culprit. Shouldn't cost more than $50 to replace all of it. And that is exactly what I'd do. Who cares what caused it if you can replace inexpensixe, easily replaced parts to fix it?

Just my .02, ........again........

Ray

X2 On your .02c Ray     Would thay make .04c?               

GT

OK, the weather is getting better again. I'm getting done with the chores and honeydos.... so now it is time to focus on the beeoatch again.

I could go yank a coil off an old truck I have at my rental unit and dork around trying to swap out ballast resistors and coils... or

Should I just upgrade to a MSD box? This is possible, right? I can leave my dizzy alone but replace/rewire and get rid of the ballast and the coil and go with the red box. If I do this will I be:
a) simplifying my life and increasing the chance that I fix my random motor stopping? 

b) expanding my scope of work and dragging out my problems while creating more - just like I always do? 

So the box just replaces the points?

(I clearly don't know enough to be dangerous about the motor, huh!?)

If you wantr to go totally electronic, use a Unilite Dizzy, a Hyfire 6al, and a good coil. (mallory pro coil would be my choice since all the rest is mallory), then you can eliminate the resistor.

A few hundred bucks for all that (What is on the mooo boat).

I would suggest what I already said, replace the coil, resistor, plug and dizzy wires, cap and rotor. It will fix the problem. If it doesn't, I owe you more than a few drinks. But it will.

An msd unit falls under the same problems as std ignitions with connection issues. I agree with electrowoman on this, you are only compounding the problem with an MSD unit.

Ray

Terry, we need to vote but I think we all agree, you ARE  'The Extreme" lol (Kinda fitting no? ) (Maybe B-rad can change your sign in name too) 

Ray

Electrowoman, I repect your position. I ran U-Hual's Technical Center here in Tempe for a couple years and could not beleive what I saw.

Our job was not only to fix the problem, but figure out why. My mission in life are the why's. I get that. There is a line though. (Took a LOT of politicing on my part to get people to sign off on this)

There comes a time when the why's and how's are not important, especially when theres a $10 fix and a $2500 investigation into why its a cheap fix.

In My mind, if you can throw $50 worth of parts at it and fix it, who cares what was wrong? right?

It's all about bottom line.........and the product.

Ray

I guess I'm the guy saying don't spend $2500 on a $10 fix.

That's to keep my wife happy!

The name electrowoman does not infer a woman here    It was her ebay handle 

Good luck how ever you procede