What a Difference a Day Makes with RedBird

[Redwing]

I had driven RedBird to Dalton yesterday to run a few errands. On the way home, I had 2 more stops. She died at each of them, and was not anxious to re start again. But within a few minutes she did.

Then I was thinking, she has driven so perfectly since the change

of the AFM plus the timing light used on her, what was the difference? Then, it came to me, she had less than a half tank of gas in her on the way home yesterday. Plus, incidentally, during all the time she was being worked on, she never had more than 5 gallons in her. I'm wondering if that could be a part of her stalling problems? Hmmm...

So, onward, I needed to go back to town today, for a similar run of errands, 7 to be exact. The first being to fill up with gas. After that fill up, she was a perfect little lady, with no hint of stalling. Today was a carbon copy of yesterday. Same outside temp, same warm up before leaving, same stopping and starting without warm ups. And, she ran beautifully.

I'm sure it will take more times of repeating the low gas to see if this incident will happen again. I don't know, but it seems like the coincidence (?) of the tank half empty, vs full may be of some bearing with her. I guess all I can say is "we will see".

Sharing this with you all, to see if you have any thoughts about it. I would like your opinion, maybe there is something mechanical to cause this instance.

Jai 😇 🚘

[Patcon]

If the low gas problem persists that would make it easier to diagnose. There are only a few possibilities, but I will wait to bring them up. If you confirm the diagnosis we will cross that bridge then.

[Redwing]

Great!

I usually top off the tank every 8 - 10 days. So I will report if and when.

Thank you for answering!

Jai

[dmorales-bello]

A full tank of gas will aid the fuel pump do it's job. Testing your fuel pump would be a simple diagnostic test.

[cbuczesk]

I very recently went through something like this. The little cone filter on the fuel pump inlet port was clogged from debris in the gas tank. Cleaning that made all the difference in the world!

 

Chuck

[Patcon]

Jai,

When the car cuts off or won't start you need to be checking the pressure gauge under the hood. If your area is as safe as it looks, you can just leave the hood popped so its easy to open and look. The car will run fine on the road with the hood popped.

[gundee]

I know Jai reported on one of the previous occasions she did 

open the hood and the gauge read good pressure.

Ignition?

[Mike]

New fuel filter time!!  

 

If it keeps clogging you might have to look up the line for other problems.  Get one of those clear glass filters so you can see when it's clogged.  

[Redwing]

Jai,

When the car cuts off or won't start you need to be checking the pressure gauge under the hood. If your area is as safe as it looks, you can just leave the hood popped so its easy to open and look. The car will run fine on the road with the hood popped.

Yes! The hood is backwards to American cars. Ha! Those Japanese who made the Z cars, really figured everything out. No chance of it blowing up and blinding the drivers vision.

In answer to your comment Patcon, both times she died we were out in the road. Checking the gauge was out of the question, I just wanted to get us out of the road. Say it happened again and I try to restart her, how much time is available to get a correct reading of the gauge? Or, if in the trying to restart her, has that ruined the correct gauge reading for the stalling? We were in Dalton, a much bigger town than my little berg of 900, and the afternoon traffic had started already. I will not forget in the future, if not out in traffic.

Thank you,

Jai 😇 🚘

[Redwing]

New fuel filter time!!  

 

If it keeps clogging you might have to look up the line for other problems.  Get one of those clear glass filters so you can see when it's clogged.

There has been very few miles in RB since the new filters have been put on. But I know, that doesn't mean diddlysquat, they could have gunked up easily. I'm not sure my physical limitations will allow me to crawl under and have a look, I will try tho. And yes, there is a clear filter on her, near the fuel pump. That is the one I really need to see, I think.

Thank you for sharing this information.

Jai

[Patcon]

Once you turn the key again I believe that is going to run the pump which would mess up the measurement. If it dies, coast out of the road or into the median, check it then try to restart it. 

[rcb280z]

Jai, like said above, check the fuel pressure before trying to restart it. Because as soon as you turn the key to the start position you energize the fuel pump. So thats why everyone is telling you to check pressure before trying to restart it.