Eagle continues to die. Running out of ideas!

[westin]

Well I put the rebuilt carb in the Eagle today. It idled for a good hour or so ..no problems. I moved it around putting into drive and reverse. Did fine. I went out to check it again a couple of hours later. It ran for about 5 minutes and then suddenly died. Its hard to start up again and makes a weird whirring sound when trying to start. This has been happening for some time now. It has died going about 45 mph up a slight incline. It also died going up an icy mountain road where I started flying down the hill backwards nearly killing myself! It dies at random times. Here is a list of recent repairs I had paid for or done myself. I cannot figure it out! Is it the pump? Fuel lines? Vacuum leaks? This is such a frustration I want to roll it off a cliff.

Replaced in-line fuel filter, spark plugs, distributor cap, ignition coil, pcv valve, got the timing adjusted, new air filter, battery, rebuilt the carburetor.

What would be the next step? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. And thank you to all of those who have offered their advice already.
 

[AMC of Houston]

I've had bad ignition modules (the square aluminum-looking thing on your right fender well) do that before (croaking at random times).

[JayRamb]

DID you buy the carb new or refurbed?

If so, either way, you need to take it apart yourself, check/set the float, check that the check balls are the correct sizes, BIG and small. You will have to drill out the idle tubes a little and check the top end accel pump and vac pump

I ordered a new one, and I made the mistake of NOT checking this out. start there, and go from there.

[Eagleearl]

Have you checked the fuel flow and pressure? There is also a restricter in the fuel overflow hose from the fuel filter that sometimes gets thrown out when the hose is relaced and causes problems.

[macdude443]

If it's just shutting off out of no where and being hard to start, it does sound like the ignition module on the fender.

[westin]

Hey Jayramb I rebuilt the carb, I believe everything should be in working order there. I am going to go ahead and buy the ignition control module. The symtpoms are pretty dang close to what has been going on! I hope this does it! The Eagle has been landed for far too long now! I will let you guys know if this fixes it!
 

[macdude443]

It's good to have a spare regardless.  It's probably too late but I would buy the genuine Motorcraft module.  The cheaper after markets may not last as long.  I had one from Standard Motor Products bad right out of the box.  If you have the "blue grommet" box I can get you the Ford part number.  The grommet can be seen where the wires come out the bottom of the box.  Blue with two plugs was the most common.

[macdude443]

Here you go.  It is DY893 for the Ford blue grommet module.  I have used these in my '86 Eagle with great results.  Link for RockAuto:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=385933&cc=1125920&jnid=653&jpid=7

[AMC of Houston]

Ditto on what MacDude said; buy a spare!!    I have spares in all of my AMC's that use them; and have used the spares 3 times in the last 10 years to get me off the side of the road.

[JayRamb]

It's good to have a spare regardless.  It's probably too late but I would buy the genuine Motorcraft module.  The cheaper after markets may not last as long.  I had one from Standard Motor Products bad right out of the box.  If you have the "blue grommet" box I can get you the Ford part number.  The grommet can be seen where the wires come out the bottom of the box.  Blue with two plugs was the most common.

Buy the HEAVY DUTY MODULE. I bought the 'regular' ones, they pooped out! O'Reilly had a lifetime warranty on the one they sell.

[mo.eagles]

Just a shot in the dark here . Do you have a catalytic converter ? If so is it plugged up?

[westin]

Crazy, how come these things crap out all the time? My dad picked me up a "Master Pro" ignition module from O'reilly's today. It was 35 bucks..the cheaper of the two. If it can get this thing going I won't even care if its the cheapo one. At least I will know the problem and how to remedy if/when it happens again. I wish I would have got the better one though..but I need to get my wheels back so I will just put this one in.I really hope this does the trick, thanks for the input fellas! Tomorrow will be the moment of truth...

[DAVE]

could be a dirty fuel tank clogging the sock filter in the gas tank

[westin]

Well, I put in the module and the Eagle fired right up. I let it run 3 different idles for about a half an hour each from cold to operating temp. Only once did it not start immediately. It did sound like it wasn't idling very smoothly but that could be another issue. It did sound like it wanted to die once but I gave it a little gas and adjusted the idle screw a little bit. (I still haven't made the exact adjustments on the idle after rebuilding the carb- I hope to get a tachometer and a fuel pressure gauge to see if I can hone this in a little more). Overall, it never died though! I am going to test it a few more times and then take it out on the road- I live in the mountains and the roads are real bad right now so want to make sure its ready to go so I won't go flying down an icy road with a dead car again! I will let you know if it passed the test. I think this may have fixed it though!

[AMC of Houston]

Do you have a copy of the IS-12e service letter??   Its the one that shows how to adjust all the carb external adjustments.  If you don't have it, shoot me your email addy and I'll send you a .pdf of it.    Did you say you drilled out the idle bleed tubes per the AMC service bulletin??