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Went over a good-sized bump at about 50 mph and my 1600 cc  engine immediately shut off, with the tach instantly dropping to zero. Coasted for a second and then the engine came back on. Then, five seconds later, it shut down... but restarted easily with the key switch. Then ran perfectly afterwards.

I assume (but could be wrong) that since it cut off so suddenly it's an electrical issue. As with fuel or air the engine would would stagger a bit before quitting. And, since it occurred after the bump I thought that it could be a loose connection. but all seem to be secure.

I'd like to solve this before going out again and possibly getting stranded. Any ideas?

 

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I'm with @msjulie on checking the battery cables if you haven't already.

Another possibility is that the bump dislodged something that caused a temporary short (across a battery connection?). I'm less inclined on this one because it would likely cause overheated wires or blown fuses.

Finally, does your distributor have points? Maybe something (sand?) got between the contacts during the bump and fell back down after the points opened and closed a few times.

Going on someone else's recent experience with this sort of thing, find your ignition coil and check that the wire connections are tight.  You're right that this is prob'ly an electrical issue and it sounds like a loose wire, somewhere.  Not a sparkplug wire - that would only make it run rough.  The coil is a good place to start, both the top center spark lead as well as the wires going to both sides of the coil and back over to the distributor.

We've also seen something like this cured by removing the electronic module inside of the distributor and cleaning up both the connections as well as the mating surfaces of the module and plate it is screwed to.  Contact cleaner in there works wonders.

Good luck!

Yup, definitely electrical in nature.

Check and clean both ends of both positive and ground battery cables. Try to use star washers under any cables. Check all connections, especially spade connectors on coil power.

It might be the ignition switch as well. Gordon is spot-on about the screw holding a point-eliminator module inside the distributor.

@dlearl476 posted:

Ignition switch.

My Alfa did that a few times before the switch completely failed.

Good one - we had a 90's VW cabriolet that didn't appreciate extra keys on the key ring and a jostle would literally rotate the key enough to switch off electrical w/o locking the column.  I feel like a similar thing happened to a bunch of Chevys..

Yeah here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ition_switch_recalls

@wombat posted:

Nothing has shaken loose. The main ground is tight, the engine bay wiring is clean and secure, as is everything behind the dash. Next is to get the car onto a lift and check the hot wire from the battery to the starter and on to the key switch. I'll pop open the distributor, too. But it seems an unlikely source.

Thanks for checking in!

RE: distributor and stuff

You won't be able to "see" if anything is wrong. Everything can be "tight" but still have a questionable connection and thus questionable current flow. You must remove things, clean them, put grease/conductive spray/star washers then re-attach.

Of special importance is the points or point eliminator on the breaker plate in the distributor. A ten minute remove/clean/re-attach is OFTEN the culprit here. But what do I know? It's only been the cause of this problem dozens of times.

I've seen battery cables that look fabulous on the outside have corrosion inside the wire and crimp connector end. They don't work very well...

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