Expert: Sean Halliday - 11/10/2006

Question
This truck has 224K miles, engine rebuilt at 138K.  Recently, while driving it under a range of conditons, the engine shuts off cold, exactly as if you shut off the ignition key.  It restarts immediately by turning the key to start (starter grinds if you do this right away, which means engine is still turning but not firing).  This has happened at 60mph, 10mph, when warm and within 3 minutes of a cold start.  I've jiggled the ignition while driving, suspecting a bad connection but cannot get it to fail this way.  Also, the radio stays on when the cut-off occurs,  which I think implies it is not the ignition switch.  Coil and distributor connections are tight.  A local Japanese repair shop kept it 3 days but it would not fail for them, so all said was it COULD be in the distributor, or some solenoids deep within the carburetor.  Because this is an old beater, I don't want to put much $ into.  I'm stumped.  Any insights greatly appreciated.

Answer
Could be the fuel pump.You will have to test the pressure and also the regulator to see whats going on when it does it.This will rule out or confirm what the problem is.As for the electrics ,when the car stops check all the distributor, and electrical circuits to the carb.