This happened to me a few years back while driving the Camaro down the freeway in LA. Luckily I got through this okay and others as well......it could have been worse as you could imagine. I just thought that I would ask this question and see if it has happened to anyone else or if this was just a freak occurrence.

While driving in the fast lane on the freeway, doing about 70 mph, my engine died on me. I had enough speed to cut over three lanes of freeway and to get to the emergency lane.

After pulling over and looking under the hood.....I discovered that the coil wire had popped off the top of the distributor cap. I popped it back in the cap.....started the car up and drove home without any more problems.

I replaced the coil wire and a new boot the next day. The old coil wire looked okay, but somehow managed to work itself off the distributor cap. Perhaps the coil wire boot might have been stretched and didn't hold tight anymore. Of course if I had HEI, this wouldn't have happened.

Even though this happened awhile back, I was just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them before. It seems like such a small problem, but could have major consequences.

Nope, never had that happen on car... i've had the spark plug wire fall off a briggs & stratton lawnmower engine when someone had mangled it when they remove it to replace the plug. On the other hand, I've never used an Accel coil... just GM, Ford, Jeep, Datsun, Mazda, MSD, and Mallory. Is the coil wire too short to allow for engine movement? Do you have broken engine mount (if the coil is mounted to the firewall)? Are you sure it was attached properly? For old style (not HEI/sparkplug style) wires, I usually slide the boot up the wire a bit, make sure it plugs in good, then slide the boot down to seal the connection.

I raced SCORE Class 8 trucks for several years - if it could come loose or fall off, it did ... :D
We 'wire-tied', 'safety-wired', 'Loctited', 'silicone-glued', 'cottered' and welded every fastener, wire, loom, hose, tube, panel and piece in place while building them - things still fell off ...

I think you just had a wierd one-time experience.
I've had a few plug wires fall off on street cars while running them hard along with one coil wire falling completely off my 4X4 on a desert road at night, that was fun looking for with a weak flashlight for a couple hours :rolleyes: - but, like you, I've never really had anything fall off on a street car that caused it to just shut down while driving.

I'd right it off to not being seated fully along the way and be happy you did the repair in a way to prevent it happening - or at least you'll know where to look first :D

John

The coil wire was the right length. The coil is on top of the intake manifold, so not much movement there as far as it separating due to engine movement. I always double check the wires after reconnecting them....so I'm pretty sure it was connected properly. I do think the problem was because of a worn boot and from the engine vibes, it worked it's way off. I'm hoping that this was just a freak incident. My try the zip-tie thingy though. Thanks for the replies.

one time that happened 2 me

Its never happend yet, to me but it does make me want to break out the zip ties.

Dave...

While driving over a bridge a few years ago, the Camaro started to run poorly. When I got to the other side the car just died. I was able to coast to about 5 feet past the intersection. Three lanes, (Two merge into one) is where I coasted to. I then got out...almost got run over because there are no break-down lanes at that area of the highway. I opened the hood and checked things out and was getting fuel so it must be no spark. The wire from the ignition switch to the resistor didn't feel too good ( brittle in a few places ) so I figured that may be the problem.

I always keep a few lengths of wire (2 foot and 5 foot ) with small clips on the ends in my console for this type of problem. I clipped one side to the resistor terminal and the other side to the + battery terminal. Got in, turned the key and it fired right up. I almost got hit several times while working on it so I just reached out closed the hood got back in and put it into first gear, dumped the clutch and laid two rubber marks at least 60 feet long. Drove the 20 miles home and repaired the bad wire. :) Yep...the coiled up jumper wire is back in my console !

Kev

Has this ever happened to you?
U mean
While driving in the fast lane on the freeway, doing about 70 mph, my engine died on me. I had enough speed to cut over three lanes of freeway and to get to the emergency lane.

Or coil wire?

Going for the 1st opition
Twice
1/In middle lane of the highwau, crossing a long over bridge with no area to pull off..not the camaro...Front left tyre blew out...rem we drive left side of the road here...the car immediatly wants to head into the slower lanes, big fight with the steering, and by luck a small gap to the left and was anle to carefully manover over the 2 lanes, crawl up yje shoilder till the end of the over bridge to where I could pull off the highway onto the stopping shoulder..
That was a bit scarry

2/ A long streack of highway a head, and Mt, temtation, so opened the Camaro up..cruising nice about 110mph, and booom, blew the back right rear..
In retrospect I was rather suprised how exceptionally well the camaro handled the situtation

I did have HT leads fall off when racing single seater off road...not 4x4
A good set of boots and clean surfaces normally fix...a spot of RTV sorts the problem 100%, but clean surfaces well with meths, dry so the silicone sticks.
Also whn ever replacing leads re compress the connecting clips so they clip on correctly.

A friend of mine running a 396 Chevelle returned from a pub one evening after a slight altercation with rowdy group of people. He may have had a little too much himself but when he attempted to start his car it did not fire. He said " That's strange, if this didn't fire up on the first revolution something is wrong." When he opened the hood the Coil Wire was stuffed down his Holley. He was not too inebriated to forget that he was a Muscle Car Fanatic.

I think you just had a wierd one-time experience.
I've had a few plug wires fall off on street cars while running them hard along with one coil wire falling completely off my 4X4 on a desert road at night, that was fun looking for with a weak flashlight for a couple hours :rolleyes: - but, like you, I've never really had anything fall off on a street car that caused it to just shut down while driving.

I'd right it off to not being seated fully along the way and be happy you did the repair in a way to prevent it happening - or at least you'll know where to look first :D

John
That!,,, reminds me of an old trick.:cool: Just pull a plug wire and use it in place of the coil wire to get you home. It also foils tricksters who take the coil wire.(if they don't stuff it down your carb) The downside is that removing the coil wire has little chance of stopping theft.

Sometimes the seal between the wire and boot and the boot and coil is so god that pressure is trapped as you seat the wire. As the engine heats up the pressure can increase and pop the wire out.

when i first got my Monte, it still had the points distributor on it. the day after i got it, i drove it the 140 miles to my mom's house for thanksgiving. ran great all the way up, and half the way back 2 days later. it started missing really bad about 50 miles from home- in a rain/snow storm, no less- so i pulled into a gas station to see what's up. 2 of the plug wires had popped out of the cap so i was running on 6 cylinders. i pushed them in, and they fit really tight- so i thought i had fixed it. 20 miles later- same thing. 20 miles later- did it again. the next day, the HEI went in.
.

That!,,, reminds me of an old trick.:cool: Just pull a plug wire and use it in place of the coil wire to get you home. It also foils tricksters who take the coil wire.(if they don't stuff it down your carb) The downside is that removing the coil wire has little chance of stopping theft.

I had this friend with a Baja Bug....that same thing would happen to him. Someone would yank the coil wire from the distributor as a prank. It happened several times, so he learned his lesson and removed the coil wire from the engine whenever he parked his car and wore the coil wire around his wrist. Well, that only worked for awhile, because the wires and rotor were the next to go. On a regular car, you might be able to flatten the tires as a prank......but for a Baja Bug you better keep a lot of spare parts in the glovebox :D

Dave...

While driving over a bridge a few years ago, the Camaro started to run poorly. When I got to the other side the car just died. I was able to coast to about 5 feet past the intersection. Three lanes, (Two merge into one) is where I coasted to. I then got out...almost got run over because there are no break-down lanes at that area of the highway. I opened the hood and checked things out and was getting fuel so it must be no spark. The wire from the ignition switch to the resistor didn't feel too good ( brittle in a few places ) so I figured that may be the problem.

I always keep a few lengths of wire (2 foot and 5 foot ) with small clips on the ends in my console for this type of problem. I clipped one side to the resistor terminal and the other side to the + battery terminal. Got in, turned the key and it fired right up. I almost got hit several times while working on it so I just reached out closed the hood got back in and put it into first gear, dumped the clutch and laid two rubber marks at least 60 feet long. Drove the 20 miles home and repaired the bad wire. :) Yep...the coiled up jumper wire is back in my console !

Kev

Kev, good point on keeping some spare parts just in case. You never know when you'll be needing them. :thumbsup:

Kev, good point on keeping some spare parts just in case. You never know when you'll be needing them. :thumbsup:

On my old on/off bike, I used to carry two spare chain tensioners in the toolkit and a spare clutch lever taped to the frame. Breaking something like that out in the woods sucks!