I have a 1984 12a GSL still stock.
Was driving home from work tonight and the car felt like I was decelerating as if the engine had died. I checked the dash and the tach said zero but the warning lights were not on. The tach jumped a couple of times and the car accelerated then it decelerated and the tach went up to about 7300 and right back down to zero. It did not feel like the ening revved up at all. Then the tach jumped a couple more time and went to zero again. the warning lights came on. I tried to start the car and it started and ran about another mile or so with the tach at zero. Died again and restarted again. The tach started jumping again and the car died. It acts like it might start then just spins without starting and the tach keeps jumping upt to 2-3000. Anyone ever run into this or know anything about it? I need any help I can get.
Thanks in advance to all who answer this need for HELP!!!

 

i had a problem kind of like that once. but the yach would jump around alot and instead of the car dieing, it wouldn't turn off. ended up being the conector to the alternator of all things. obviously the plastic had broke and it was grounding out. might wanna check that.

anotherthing it could be is your trailing coil might be going bad. the tach wire is conected to the negative side of it. hope this helps some. good luck.

 

Its most likely your ignitor on the side of the dizzy, little black box. If the ignitor goes out on the trailing side its kills the trailing ignition, including the tach signal. Pretty common for em to go out time to time. The sure fix is a msd box.

 

Yeah, it's an electrical short of some kind. I have no experience with 1st gen's, but I had a similar thing happen in my FC. Turns out that a wire had basically melted onto my turbo, exposing the live 12V... It would brush up against (something) causing my tach to drop instantly and my engine to surge. It then killed the motor and upon restarting it, it instantly shut off and kinda freaked me out cause I had no idea what was going on. So yeah, something electrical is wacked out.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions. I checked them out and then found I have no power to my fuel pump. According to the shop manual there is supposed to be a fuel pump cut relay up under the dash on the driver's side. Anyone know where or what it looks like. Or does anyone have information on what else might shut down the power to the fuel pump? I can't see in the diagram or the fuse panel that there is a fuse controlling the pump.

 

i also had a 12a once and had the same problem it ended up being the ignitor as was previously pointed out. it is a little black nodule on the side of the distributor, rip a few off a parts car or junk yard, they are cheap.

 

One of the ignitors (little black box) on the side of the distributor acts as a fuel pump relay, and runs the tack. I believe its the trailing but been along time since I did the auto repair. If you get this intime give dan a call at the shop

 

Thanks one and all! You nailed it. It was one of the ignitors. The confusing part was that the fuel pump was dead. But thanks to Atkins Mama for tying the two together. When I switched the two connectors everything worked. And when I did a very thorough chase of the wiring diagram I can see how the ignitor is indirectly connected through the emissions control box to the fue pump. Again, even though my wallet is weeping tremendously, thanks!
Don

 

Your welcome, glad I can help, we do have some new and used ones in stock if that helps ya... call Josh as DAn is leaving in the morning for sevenstock!

 

damn something like that just happened to my fc a couple days ago