1974 1.8 all stock.
Since I purchased the car a few months ago, every now and then it feels like it looses partial power and then will come back to life.
A few times I have applied throttle and nothing, like the car was dead. I would then pop the throttle a few times and it jumped back to life.
Not positive but it seems like this has occurred after hitting some rough patches in the road but it does not happen often.
I am guessing an electrical connection somewhere or a throttle positioning sensor.
I am new to FI and reading a lot but if I could be pointed in the most likely direction that would be appreciated.
Thanks
DJ

It's probably not the issue you have, but it might be something to check, because my old 1.7 used to do the exact same thing. It felt like the car was at half power at times, and then suddenly it would come back to life. This happened often after hard turns or bumps.

It had me puzzled for months until one day when I went to disconnect the negative terminal on the battery, the connector broke off of the ground cable. Apparently a majority of the ground cable had been sheared at some point in the car's history, leaving only a few strands of the multicore cable still attached to the connector. The sheared strands were close enough to make contact sometimes, until bumps rattled them apart.

After I replaced the connector and made sure it was securely clamped on the cable, the problem went away completely. Might be something to check out on your car, that all of your major electrical wires are in good shape and making solid contact.

I have always said start with the ground side first. I will poke around the battery bits and see what happens.

Harness is probably brittle from the engine heat. Idle engine after a warm up run and start lifting different parts of it of the FI harness . See if it makes any different.

Since this car is new to you, many things are unknown. Start with pulling the spark plugs and posting pictures of what they look like on here. Then do a valve adjustment, then check the dwell on the dizzy or replace the points with something modern such as the pertronix module. Then check or replace all vacuum hoses including the rubber seals for the fuel injectors.

This would be a good start, for added peace of mind, pull the fuel tank and replace the fuel sock. If this was my car I would take the extra step of replacing the plastic supply and return fuel lines with stainless.

I have already changed all the wires, plugs, fluids, valve adjust on the first weekend I had it.
I pulled the ground cable and cleaned it as it looked a little crusty where it mounts to the body.
I found an electronic box of some sort just dangling on a zip tie ( I did not track whre the wires went) so I screwed that back down to the body.
I also found a hot wire going into the motor electronics that was just a few wires attached poorly to the positive pole on the battery. I got that cleaned up and solid again.
Drove it about 60 miles today and did not notice any cut outs......yet LOL.
On the down side my 72 bus quit shifting........ again....always something.

Had the same problem on my '74 2L. going down the road, shuts off as if I'd turned off the key. So I turned off the key and turned it back on, release the clutch it fired right up.

Turns out it was a bum fuel pump relay out back. I had a few extras, tested them using the heater blower, found that one was gimpy and inconsistent. Replaced it, cleaned the terminals and used dielectric grease, never had a problem since. Thanks to Chris Foley for the idea.

I know your FI system is different, but I'd check those relays first.

Had the same issue with my 1.8. I cleaned the contacts on my FI brain harness. Seemed to solve it. Also, a good ground is essential. If your negative battery cable looks suspect, it is an easy $12 fix to make sure you're getting good ground.

Agree with many here, you most likely have some simple loose connection at the ignition switch, main grounds, or main Fi connectors.
It could even be dirty fuses that need to be removed, cleaned and replaced.
Rich

Update. Since fixing the frayed fittings there has not been another cutout. Thanks for the help.

Check the connection at the air flow meter. I used contact cleaner and found a few pins were pushing out of the connector Pressed them back in and problem went away


-Best


-Robert