Cutting out with no warning....

SCOUTII79

SCOUTII79

New member
Recently, within the past 2 week, my Scout has been shutting down, of course at the wrong times and in dangerous locations. She still starts and runs a bit rough, but know this is a new issue. In the a.m. I start it (after about 2-3 attempts) and let her idle for at least 5 minutes maybe a bit more, to warm up. Everything seems fine on my way to work, then about after I'd say a 2-3 miles down the rode, she shuts down with no warning. No sputtering or coughing or stalling, just a complete now you here me now you don't. Everything shuts down, motor, power steering, everything. If I had to guess, I'd say something electrical, not fuel/air. But I'm not too familiar with these beasts just yet, so I'm a bit miffed. Where would you start?

1979 scoutii, 345, 4bbl edelbrock carb.
 
In addition to the above info, after it shuts down and I get off the road, I put it in park and attempt to restart it. 99% of the time that is unsuccessful. As soon as I attempt to restart, the battery just seems drained. Is the alternator not doing its job? I tested the battery/alternator/starting system the other day and all seemed to test good. But that was in the driveway after starting and running a bit.
 
Good chance that something is wrong with the alternator or associated wiring. When the battery gets depleted enough, the ignition system does not receive sufficient voltage to fire properly and the engine dies. Naturally when the engine stops turning, belt driven accessories such as the ps pump stop working. Batteries do have the ability to recover to a small extent when no demand has been placed on them for several hours. It seems to me like your alternator May be putting out just enough charge to slightly bolster the battery for the first few minutes while you're warming up the engine. Then once you take off, perhaps running some lights and other accessories, the depletion begins in rapid fashion. If you keep trying to limp it along without addressing the issue, you will do permanent damage to the battery. Btdt. Batteries hate that kind of abuse. I'm curious to know what specific steps you took to test your system as you mentioned.
 
I tested them with a mdx650 handheld. With and without loads applied. I did some peaking around today under the hood. I did locate a couple wires that were not connected to anything at all. One did come from the alternator. Going to look into this more.
 
The next time you have it idling with a free moment, take a voltage reading across the battery terminals. You should see roughly 14 volts. Much less indicates a charging issue.
 
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