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1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies

Home > Discussion Forum > Mechanic's Corner - Engines

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1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies Rick 5-28-08  
I have a 1978 Itasca motorhome with a 440 Dodge motor. We've owned the motorhome for about 5 years and have been relatively happy with it except for one problem. Occasionally while driving down the road, the engine will suddenly die...... I will ease it over to the side of the road (when there is a road shoulder) and after different lengths of time trying to restart it, it will suddenly start again and run fine, sometime for days, sometimes for hours before it happens again. We put it in the shop and had it worked on and it now runs better than it has in years. Only problem is it still does the lose power thing.....only now it restarts in minutes instead of hours.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Re: 1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies BUBBA THE BUS TECH 5-28-08  
Without more back ground thats tough. How hot outside air temp. Always when hot out never when cool? Always climbing a steep hill at low speed? Allways at highway speed? Allways when some particular thing happens, bump, stereo on or off, after the weekend out camping without hook ups? Things to think about: Vapor lock usualy high temp situations, high load low speed, to test take lid off air cleaner and look into throttle bores and see if the acceleator pump squirts when you move the pedal, its got fuel no vapor lock. Bad balast resistor: usualy goes bad and stays bad but possible. Bad ignition module, they are often heat and stress sensitive when intermitant. Fresh plugs and a tune up will reduce stress on this and have it fail less. That sounds close to your symptoms. Next time it quits check for spark. Remember puling the engine cover will lower the temps under the hood very quick and things that are temp sensitive will go back to work very quick. Good Luck
Re: 1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies Jason 5-31-08  
I had an old dodge truck that did the same thing. Turned out to be the ignition module. $35 and it ran like a top. Good luck.
Re: 1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies lyle 7-14-08  
Sounds like a loose wire in the system
Re: 1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies Les 6-4-08  
This sounds like a problem another guy is having on the classic Winnebago site. You should check out http://groups.msn.com/ClassicWinnebagos/homepage.msnw Everyone is welcome to join not just Winnebago owners, Les
Re: 1978 440 Doge MH - engine dies Rick 5-28-08  
Bubba,

Thanks for the response. There doesn't seem to be any "common scenario" when it happens. On the way back, it happened going up a steep hill. (put on brakes, turned key and it started after about 15 seconds)....... Next time going down the highway at about 60 miles an hour. Cool outside (55-65 degrees) cruising along and it just quit, coasted to a stop, put it in park, turned the key, pumped the gas a little and started right up about 30 seconds. Next time, crusing along at about 65 to 70.......lost power.....pulled to shoulder.....started up within 30 seconds and off we went..........drove another 150 miles home without further incident.
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