southern california X1/9

April 15, 2007: The trip was fairly uneventful and going smooth as usual. I had stopped in Barstow to fill up with gas and pick up some lunch then continued on my way. About 10 miles south of Barstow, I experienced a slight hesitation where the motor suddenly start to cut out and then kick back in. It happened so fast and things returned to normal that I suspected it may have just been a clogged fuel filter since I had just filled up from a nearly empty tank.

April 27, 2007: After leaving the car at the airport parking for a week while I literally flew off to work, I returned and started to exit the parking lot when it acted up again. This time it happened several times but again returned to normal. I began suspecting my ignition was the culprit as suggested by Gregory Smith on XWEB and went to a nearby Radio Shack to pick up some electrical pieces in the event I needed to do some type of roadside modification to the system (more on that later).

April 28, 2007: Drove all over Orange County and out to Little Saigon for dinner with no problems. The temps were cool outside so it was perfect for top-off driving. Again, no problems.

April 29, 2007: Took off for Calabasas to attend Village Coffee Roasters. The 45 minute drive from OC went flawless. I departed Southern California for Las Vegas near mid-day and that’s when my problems began. Slightly after noon in Barstow, the motor started cutting out again this time for an extended period of time in which once it came back on full-throttle but the next time, the motor died. I watched the tachometer as it slowly went down to zero as the car shut off. Afterwards, it would start right up again, but then cut out shortly after. I was able to make it to a safe location off of the freeway exit both times it shut off and I knew that the next exit in Barstow had a service station so I decided that I could try to make it another mile to get there and luckily I was able to. On the prior stops, I contacted Doug Lindeman to seek out advice on what to check. We went through the following:

Pulled off the air filter and with the ignition switch in the on position with the car off, pushed in the flap on the air flow meter to test that the fuel pump came on. Result: OK

Checked the wiring connection from the coil to the distributor. Result: OK

Checked the wiring connections on the distributor. Result: OK

In the back of my mind all day Friday and Saturday was Gregory’s post about ignition. I decided that it was time to do the infamous Brown Wire Mod as I was determined to make it back to Vegas IN MY FIAT. So, looking in my toolkit, which I had just decided would be a good idea to start carrying, I got out a few tools and the wiring things I bought from Radio Shack the day before. I was still short some items, but the service station with a 24-hour on-duty mechanic was more than happy to supply me with these bits free of charge. I just simply followed the BWM as posted in XWEB. I did not have time nor the patience in the 100 degree heat to do anything fancy, so I just tore off the covers and ran the wire from the battery and in through the drivers-side window. I cut about a half-inch off of the existing brown (+) wire on the ignition switch and tied the new wire from the battery onto it. I remember reading that this should be fused so I stuck an in-line fuse I had lying around in the glove box and that completed the circuit.

This seemed to work. The idea was to provide additional load capacity to the ignition circuit which would help it from cutting out. I think heat was a huge factor, in addition to all of the accessories I have added over the last few months – all of which run off of this one switch. As an added precaution, I turned off all the accessories inside the car: amp, stereo, door chime, interior lighting, etc… I had no further issues, even as ambient temps went as high as 108 degrees in the Mojave. Of course, after I completed the modification, I loaded up on ice and water!

Now, I thought I had faced the worst in solving this issue but then another issue presented itself: cooling. It became increasingly difficult to maintain cool temperatures throughout the remainder of the drive and suddenly I completely forgot about the electrical issue and overheating became my primary focus. Interstate 15 has many stretches of long climbs where vehicles travel slowly and I was frequently caught behind slow people and that contributed to the increasing temps. Even with 2 cooling fans and the heat ON, I still reached red. I had to pull over several times to cool down, which took about 15 minutes each time, and temps returned to the 190 range. During one of the stops, I took the time to rerun the new wire from the BWM through the firewall behind the instrument panel and under the dash.

I finally made it home 6 hours later…hot and sweaty…wound up, but not wounded and now I have a few small projects to complete…

Special thanks to Gregory Smith and Doug Lindeman! …….and of course The Brown Wire Mod!