[urq] intermittent ignition cutout, tach drops to zero

[DGraber460 at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/14/2005 12:40:22 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
ekellock at gmail.com writes:

In the  last few days, my urq has started to cut out intermittently. 
The tach  drops to zero and most of the time it comes right back on its
own, but  sometimes I have to cycle the ignition switch.  Every time I
do have  to cycle the ignition switch it comes back  immediately
afterwards.

Over the last couple days I have fixed some  vacuum leaks, cleaned the
contacts on the cap and rotor, replaced the spark  plugs with some
f5dpor (20-valve turbo) plugs, and replaced a blob of black  goo that
was originally a breather hose down on the side of the  block.

The car has a little history of this type of cutting out.   It did it
one time on the day I started home with it from SC when I first  bought
it.  Cycling the key fixed it then and it was fine the rest of  the
1500 miles home.  Since then (Oct '02), it's done it a grand total  of
maybe 3 times.   Did the whole Park City trip without this  ever
happening.

The issues I fixed in the last few days have existed  since I got the
car.  I feel I've either disturbed something or, I've  gotten things
more buttoned down than they've been for a long time and  something's
not quite used to working right again.

That last  statement may sound stupid, but after I fixed the vacuum
leaks (metering  head bolt missing, other's loose, and a small diameter
hose was torn at the  nipple it connects to), the car started up with
very little cranking and  settled into a nice idle of about 800 rpm,
which is something it has never  done.  While the car was idling, I was
fiddling with the mixture a  little and out of the blue the frequency
valve kicked in (started buzzing  constantly) and the idle went up to
about 1100 like it used to always  be.  But then the buzzing stopped
and the idle settled back down again  and this hasn't reoccurred.  Ever
since that round of wrenching  though, I've had the intermittent
ignition cutout.

Also the main  hoses to the carbon canister are not connected, but the
very small diameter  hose from the control valve to the intake manifold
is still  connected.  One of the nipples on the intake dome is broken
off and  plugged and the other is capped.  I assume that's when the
previous  owner or one of his monkey-lad minions just disconnected the
hoses to the  carbon canister.

I guess my main question right now is: is there any  way that the
fuel/vacuum functions can trigger an ignition cutout for any  reason? 
That is the main area I've affected and this ignition cutout  just
seems like a breaker flipping and resetting.  I've wiggled and  jiggled
all the wires in the areas where I had my hands stuffed and  haven't
been able to intentially cause the cutout.

Ed
Colorado  Springs
_______________________________________________


That is exactly what my car does once about every 7-8 months. I have  
replaced everything except the TDC sensor on the flywheel. Since it is _so_  
sporadic, I have no way of knowing what fixed it, if in fact I have. 
I too, have not been able to reproduce it. It happened again on the way  home 
form Park City. Keep me posted on your findings.

 
Dennis
Denver