Pontiac Repair: 91 SUNBIRD 2.0L Stalls-No gas or Spark !!, vacuum leaks, hey steve


Question
QUESTION: It runs 4 about 5 to 10 minutes then stalls out. let set for a hour or so will restart right up. then does the same as above continuously. i heard of no fuel but with spark and spark but no fuel .. both has got me stump.. car has 112k miles-new cam rockers ,timebelt. fuel filter,catalast converter. 10k miles ago. tune up in late fall with plugs cap rotor ,wires, water temp sensor, oyxgen sensor and battery. runs great and smooth . notice in the last few weeks at idle running a little slower in park. choke not staying on as long n morning and rpm's slower with choke n moring.after warm up alittle or at running temp in idle . giving it gas to listen to motor. engine lopes or slight missis.
or as i can best describe sound is da --da da -da-da da da---da-da. hope u understand that meaning. but running down the round ,its just sound as smooth as it can be..going to have distributor module and coil check at parts store n a couple days when rain lets to take parts off and get that done. Beside that, if thats not the problem which i don,t think it is.. i need any suggestion were else to look. just don't understand or know why both are cutting out when it stalls. almost forgot i can still hear fuel pump run when i turn key on. i check for vacuum leaks and wire connection. also motor cranks right over with no problem. Car when running has always started within a second or second n half at longest. And reading no codes also. just good old 12 as always..also i narrowed down this chirp noise i hear about 15 seconds before it stalls .its coming from inside the distributor. could that be a good clue were to start?? any suggestion would be much appreciated


ANSWER: Hey Steve:

Your in the right area. from the sounds of it the car is stumbling or has a slight misfire at idle. The distributor is the right place to start looking. It's either the pick up coil or the ignition module. the pick up coil sends a signal to the module to #1 run the ignition coil and then send an rpm signal to the engine computer to let it know the engine is turning over. if the engine doesn't see that siganl it will not control the injector. if the module doesn't see that signal from the pick up it will not drive the coil. on those the insulation on the pick up coils would break down over time and then the resiatnace of the coil is wrong and then it stops working correctly. another thing that would happen with them was a oil seal in that distributor would go bad and fill the distributor up with oil and cause all kinds of issues. So to sum up I would say it's safe to say that it's something inside the distributor that's gone/going bad causing your problem. Good luck :}


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: played with car today to see if it still dies after 5 minutes or so and did. had my volt meter on battery waiting for it stall. reading around 14.5 but as soon as its dies the volts jump around to 2.0 7.0-11.0-3.o-and so on for about 5 to 10 secounds then evens out to 12.45 .but this time while volts were jumping around i could here the alternator ,sometime in side clicking. going to take it off and get that check .  questions is why would volts bounce around in battery after it dies or is that normal?

Answer
I can't imagine the battery voltage dropping that far from 12.45 down to 2 volts that quickly. my guess is you had a bad connecton at the battery. leave the headlamps on and let it run if the headlamps dim down then you know you have an electrical issue. at 2.0 volts the lamps will not even light. The chagring system on those older cars was usually between 12.5 and 13.5 volts give or take what ever extra load is on in the car a/c,rear defogger,blower motor on high blower, etc...
Back to what I was saying about the distributor pick up if you have a ohm meter check the 2 wire comming off the pick up unplug it from the module and check the resistance. it should be between say 800-1400 ohms depending on the temp of the engine. if it's too low or excesivvly higher the pick up is bad or if the wires are all corroded then you found you problem.