I posted this on a board this AM. Thought you guys might want to see it too.
Don't know where else to post this, but maybe it will help someone down the road. My CSX #173 has had a hard time in the mornings remaining running. When the engine gets warm, the problem is gone. So, I lived with this problem for months. I would just have to keep blipping the throttle a little at the first stop sign on my street. Then, by the time I stopped again, things were fine. I was told this was the fuel pump going bad. I decided to just drive it like this and find out. I was only driving it to work and back (14 miles each way) so if I got stranded, my AAA membership would come in handy that day. Next, I was getting the "tic toc tac" problem. We all know the tach driver board had solder issues, so I attributed it to that. Maybe I will just get that PC board out and resolder it soon..... That lasted for a couple of weeks. Finally, yesterday the car just shut off on me twice on the way home. Hmmmm, maybe the HEP is going bad?? I had a spare (as I'm sure most of you do) so after I made it home, I took off the distributor cap to replace it. What I found was the metal timing piece (the thing with the 4 protrusions on it and one of them has a window cut into it) which is heat staked to a piece of plastic and roll pinned to the distributor shaft had lost 2 of the heat stakes. The other two were so loose that the timing could shift. I guess inertia held it in position for a long time and it finally decided to fall almost totally apart. I don't know how the car made it home that day. Glad I keep boneyard parts like a pack rat. I replaced the entire distributor and every symptom I have had for the past several months went away. I can only guess that the plastic heat stakes were looser when it was cold. So, if your car has trouble running in the AM, maybe just replace the distributor piece instead of waiting to see what else fails next.... One other thing... during this time period, the car would sometimes idle a little rough and sometimes it was just fine. I guess that was due to wherever the distributor window thingy ended up when the car was shut down and restarted. ___________REMOVE-FOOTER-WHEN-REPLYING_________ ShelbyDodge mailing list [email protected] http://www.imagilist.com/mailman/listinfo/shelbydodge
