Help, I'm stuck on side of road with no start.

Took 914 2.0 out a few days ago. Ran great but once she got hot I started noticing some bucking on acceleration. Went home, next day did a short run and all seemed fine.

Took her out today, it's hot out. Running great. A few miles from home I stop at traffic light. Uh oh, engine died. Turn key and it cranks but no fuel, spark or something. Just swapped out coil with a new one in trunk. Just have basic tools with me.

Any help or ideas appreciated. For example, how do I know if fuel pump is running?

Thanks.

Mike

Listen closely when you first turn the key on (before cranking). With a djet you should hear the pump run briefly.

Pretty sure I hear pump cycling.

Mine did the same sort of thing last year, turned out that a new distributor cap and rotor fixed it.

Thanks. Cap and rotor are new but that does not mean they can't fail. May try old one before I grab the trailer, I think I kept it.

I can smell fuel after heavy cranking so I am leaning toward no spark issue but not sure given no real test tools with me.

An interjection, and I'm not saying you don't Mike, I obviously don't know.

You cannot own a 40 year old sports car without having some kind of roadside assistance / towing plan on your insurance. You will probably need it.

Good luck Mike!

Could it be a vapor lock?

You should say where you are. Maybe someone is close by that can assist...

I doubt you drove up to MA, but if you did, there are a bunch of us ready to jump in our cars and run down to meet you.

If it's vapor lock it will cool down enough to start after it sits about 40 min's.

Had a neighbor rescue me. Returned with my trailer and hauled it back home. Fortunately, I was not too far out.

Still sitting on trailer, will try to figure it out tomorrow. I am inclined to think it is not getting spark. Cap / rotor sound like reasonable suspects. I do have the Rev limiting rotor in there if that matters.

If I could afford a new Alfa Giulia, and it came in a stick, today would have been the day I said, "I'm done".

Thanks to those who replied.

have you ever cleaned your advance plates and re greased them?
The OEM grease gets like glue when hot.
Keeps the plates to advanced to start the car.

If it happens, reach in and gently push them back to non advance position.

OR,
take them out and clean between the two plates (screws in the side) and add a nickel of breaking grease to make them all smooth again.

Rich

The mystery deepens.

Yesterday she had 2 hours to cool down by the time I got my trailer. Still a no start.

This AM I pulled off the distributor cap and rotor. They looked fine. Put them back on, turned the key and she fires right up. Sputtered a little clearing out the excess fuel but then smooth.

I suspect the underlying problem remains but have no idea what it might be.

Remove the rev limiting rotor and try a straight rotor?
Craig at CAMP

The bucking that started it all makes me considering vapor lock as well. Has your fuel pump been relocated to the front? That pretty well would eliminate vapor lock as the cause.

Mike, my old d-jet would give me fits like this.
Many times it was electronic. Is the relay plate in good shape? No cracks?
Make sure all the grounds are good.
Just an idea.
Cheers, Dion

Too lean.
Where's the idle mixture screw on the ECU set at?
If it runs best at full rich, the MPS needs adjustment.

Fuel pump is at front. All new lines, hoses from front to back, new fuel pump, tank restored about a year ago. Wiring harness is is also a year old as is mps (NOS unit), cht, injectors, plugs, wires, hoses, etc. She was running great last summer and winter. Has pertronix, may have original trigger points.


I know I had a challenge getting the three harness ground connectors snug below/ near throttle body. Guess I will recheck those. Also ordered non rev limiting rotor so that is a cheap test.

The challenge is that it is not constant which makes diagnosis harder. She will be purring at all revs and then ... Don't want to wander too far from home until I resolve.

I had a similar intermittent problem a few years ago. I started bench testing every FI component I could. When reinstalling the CHT, I noticed a piece of debris under the CHT sensor. Removed the junk, reinstalled and haven't had the problem since. My guess is that it was causing intermittent grounding issues as the head heated & cooled.

Make sure your CHT is tight in the head and verify that your CHT connection is good.

Good luck & keep us posted.

Might I have found the problem??

Bob's reply prompted me to check the cht connector. I reached down for the wire and it looks like it was already out of the harness connector or was at least certainly very loose as it was just there.

Seems like that could be it although I thought a disconnected cht would cause cold start / cold running issues rather than when hot as I experienced.

Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed and thanks again.

Check coil wire to dizzy. happened to me once..

Disconnected CHT is going to flood the engine. On a stone cold engine it may fire up, briefly, then die. It will kill a warm or hot engine. If your CHT was disconnected or flaky, that's the problem (or at least one of them).

Disconnected CHT is going to flood the engine. On a stone cold engine it may fire up, briefly, then die. It will kill a warm or hot engine. If your CHT was disconnected or flaky, that's the problem (or at least one of them).
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Seems like everybody has had this problem with their DJet at sometime or other. For me it turned out to be a bad connection to the trigger points on the side of the dizzy. I would wiggle the connection and it would start up right away. This happened a couple of times, several months apart. Finally I pulled the dizzy, cleaned the advance points plate, pulled and cleaned the trigger points, even tho all that looked clean and functional. Then twisted the connectors on the side of the dizzy with a small needle nose pliers just a bit, to get better contact in the plug. Solved my problem for several years.

But I have to add that its in my garage now, some other problem this time, so I'll be rechecking my CHT,.. The trigger points connection is fine, fuel pump is fine,...

Good luck. We're all watching and everybody else is wondering when it'll be their turn

Took her for a long ride today including some stop and go. Ran flawlessly.

I now have a rotor, cap, and cht sensor added to my trunk toolkit along with a voltmeter.

Thanks again.