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91A cuts out with blinker or headlights

I have posted this problem several times before on this NG, so bear with me if you have ever read the post or replied. I have owned my 91A for 4 summers now and have a problem that comes and goes with no pattern, at least none that I can figure out. It happens several times a year and goes away as mysteriously as it appeared. If while the car is running I turn on the headlights, the engine will cut out. I can however use my flash to pass diode mod to flip up the headlights on high beam without killing the engine. It used to be if I had the running lights on and used the blinkers the engine would kill, but now it will die when I use the blinkers with no running lights during the day and press the gas pedal.

I have been thinking all along that this just might be a problem in the turn switch, but have never been convinced enough to pursue the matter farther since the car is a garage queen that doesn't see a lot of night driving to begin with. Has anyone ever tackled a turn signal switch replacement, or heard of a weird problem like this before? Any suggestions as to a source for a used NA turn signal....low priced??

Thanks in advance!

Shorten .comedy to .com to reply directly.

Reply to
Mike®
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Today the blinker didn't make the car cut out until I was almost home from a short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Mike®

Today the blinker didn't make the car cut out until I was almost home from a short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Mike®

Today the blinker didn't make the car cut out until I was almost home from a short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Eric Lucas

Today the blinker didn't make the car cut out until I was almost home from a short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Mike®

I've got no idea how to fix your problem other than just not to do those things that "kill" the engine. We did rent a car in Hawaii once where the only way to get the windshield wipers to work was to honk the worn. Not a problem once we figured it out. Simply turn on the wipers, honk the horn, and away we went. I also had a British sports car once where the engine would cut out every time I accelerated hard. Believe it or not, that turned out not to be electrical. I know that's hard to believe with a British car, but in this case it was a pebble in the gas tank.

Gus

Reply to
Gus

short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

A slightly different position of the engine due to the force on the flywheel being different. Maybe try a second earth from engine block to car and carefully check for damaged wires between engine block and car?

All just wild guesses, of course.

Leon

Reply to
Leon van Dommelen

No alarm. I have no cruise control either. I disconnected the switch on the clutch pedal with no change. The closest thing to a hack job I have is the flash to pass diode I installed, but this was happening way before that. I read in my Miata enthusiasts manual that it is common for ECU's to be diagnosed as bad when 80% that are returned are indeed good, which lead the author to think unplugging the old and plugging in the new only served to clean the plug contacts to the ECU.

The way the car stalls is like either the fuel is shut off or the spark. I can't remember at the moment if I have to turn the ignition key backwards a quarter turn before starting, but everything including the airbag goes through the startup diagnosis. When the car stalls it doesn't seem to matter how fast I am going and if the transmission is still engaged, RPM's could be 3500 and it will not run until restart. I will keep at this until I have it isolated. Thanks for the input!

Reply to
Mike®

from a short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Mike®

I don't know if this helps but on my 92 Miata (only bought it 3 months ago so I have no long-term history with the car), sometimes the engine RPM will go up 100-200RPM when in gear and back down when not in gear, both while the clutch is depressed. Sometimes there is no difference but other times it does make a difference (engine is warm as opposed to cold or warming up?) so this leads me to believe that there IS an electical difference when the transmission is in gear or not... Oh, I don't have a cruise control.

Regards, Daniel

in-gear vs. out-of-gear is a connection to the cruise control. Clutch-engaged vs. clutch-disengaged also has an electrical connection to the cruise control, but it's also got an electrical connection to the starter.

couple of misconnections.

short round trip. I figured out that if I have the car in neutral with the headlights on, the car will not cut out until I put it gear. I have the 5 speed transmission. What on earth would make a difference electrical wise having the car in gear or not?

Reply to
Daniel Born

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