PT Ray

I have an 84 GSL that will run fine and then all of a sudden will lose power and the idol will drop to about 200rpms. When it does this I measured the voltage feeding the leading coil and found little to none present. I tried two different ignitors and still had the erratic behavior. Unless I missed something, this leaves me with the distributor causing the issue. I just have not heard of any issues regarding the distributor itself. Do the pickups in them eventually wear out? Is 200k miles a good lifetime?

numan2

you gotta remember the ignitors don't supply power to the coils they turn the coils on and off. The power is supplied from the ignition switch.

mwatson184

Sounds like some weak/faulty wiring to the coil. Try rewiring to a switched on 12v source, or use that source and a relay and wire directy to the battery. I hate the ignition wiring on 1st gens.

Marques

PT Ray

Thanks guys for the input.

I am still leaning towards a fualty pickup. I was reading about how to check them and what the symptoms were. I see it very plausable that the constant temperature changes under the hood (i.e. warmups, highwy vs. city etc.) would cause a faulty pickup to expand and contract and as a result, a certain weak spot is exploited causing the sudden loss in performance. If this is not it, I will be at a total loss and back to posting more questions.