Silly mistake causes highway breakdown and tow back home
This morning, after rebuilding the steering column and restoring the seats, rear spring, alternator and distributor, I took the ’70 on a shakedown cruise, its first outing in several weeks. 30 minutes later with no issues, I entered the Dallas LBJ TEXpress with 75 mph toll lanes and typically light traffic- a perfect test track. She was cruising great for several miles… and then the ENGINE SUDDENLY SHUT DOWN, just as if the ignition was turned off.
I managed to pull onto the narrow right shoulder and turned on the flashers. With 80+ mph traffic whizzing inches away (everybody speeds as if they're important), instead of opening the hood I decided to remain in my car for safety reasons. I called the TEXpress emergency number and they dispatched a crash truck which blocked the right lane behind me and promptly took a lunch break in the cab. While waiting for the tow truck I went through the mental list of how I screwed up. The engine cranked normally but would not start. Because it stopped suddenly, ignition failure was likely. Since I played with the cross gear end play in the distributor, my best guess was the main shaft seized or snapped in two due to my expert work… or maybe I didn’t snug down the points or rotor properly.
It took almost an hour for the tow truck to arrive (in the middle of Dallas 1.5 miles from my home!) so I was on the side of the road for over 90 minutes. When the ’70 was back in its home and I opened the hood, I immediately saw the problem: the coil high tension wire popped out of its distributor terminal. Good news! No expensive failure.
I also immediately knew this entire drama was my fault, not the car's. You see, my normal practice when attaching ignition wires to the distributor and coil is to “burp” each boot by inserting a probe between the boot and wire to allow air to escape while pushing down on the wire and then the boot. Well, I didn’t do that last time because it seemed snug and tight without burping. My theory is air trapped inside the boot prevented the wire from completely seating, and/or trapped air heated up and pushed the wire out of its terminal.
Lesson re-learned: always burp your boots!
I managed to pull onto the narrow right shoulder and turned on the flashers. With 80+ mph traffic whizzing inches away (everybody speeds as if they're important), instead of opening the hood I decided to remain in my car for safety reasons. I called the TEXpress emergency number and they dispatched a crash truck which blocked the right lane behind me and promptly took a lunch break in the cab. While waiting for the tow truck I went through the mental list of how I screwed up. The engine cranked normally but would not start. Because it stopped suddenly, ignition failure was likely. Since I played with the cross gear end play in the distributor, my best guess was the main shaft seized or snapped in two due to my expert work… or maybe I didn’t snug down the points or rotor properly.
It took almost an hour for the tow truck to arrive (in the middle of Dallas 1.5 miles from my home!) so I was on the side of the road for over 90 minutes. When the ’70 was back in its home and I opened the hood, I immediately saw the problem: the coil high tension wire popped out of its distributor terminal. Good news! No expensive failure.
I also immediately knew this entire drama was my fault, not the car's. You see, my normal practice when attaching ignition wires to the distributor and coil is to “burp” each boot by inserting a probe between the boot and wire to allow air to escape while pushing down on the wire and then the boot. Well, I didn’t do that last time because it seemed snug and tight without burping. My theory is air trapped inside the boot prevented the wire from completely seating, and/or trapped air heated up and pushed the wire out of its terminal.
Lesson re-learned: always burp your boots!
Comment