could this have been my stalling problem ?

[blazer2007]

Have a newer stock 350/350 with HEI dist and was having some random stalling but would fire up again. Did all the usual ,fuel coil wire etc. But did some wiggling of wires under dash and could make it stall. I have some electric gauges with male/female connectors so I can remove them if I want but I noticed the ground wire terminal was bear and was taped beside my hot wire going to ign. on on the fuse panel. Could that be shorting out ? I taped it up and I can,t make it stall and seems to work but I just want to make sure it,s just not a coincidence. The hot wire to the fuse panel is not that thick , maybe 14 or 16 gauge I,m guessing

[blazer2007]

when it did stall it was instant no sputter or nothing

[dmjlambert]

It sounds likely you found and fixed it. Time will tell. A ground wire terminal being bare and touching almost anything such as the body of the truck or other wires that have good insulation should not cause a problem, but a small nick in the jacket of a hot wire touching that ground wire where it is bare could cause a short. It could also be when you were under the dash investigating and moving stuff around you could have isolated the wires enough from each other to remove a short that was causing you problems.

[blazer2007]

I didn,t see a nick on the hot wire but was thinking that it is a poor quality wire with little insulation. It was just a red wire I had in my scrap bin of wires . Funny that it was so random, it would run good one day and other days would act up but the last couple days was really bad but I suspect with all the wiggling I,ve done hit the right spot for a short. Hope I,m right but at least I know is somewhere in that corner. As usual I,m not good at wiring and don,t think to much on the gauge I,m using. Except on stereo amps, air bag compressors ,then I pay attention

[dmjlambert]

I suggest give it a good close inspection and make sure it's all good. You don't want a short that gets so bad it causes a fire down there by your legs, or fire overnight when the trucks just sitting around. It has been known to happen.

[blazer2007]

OK thanks,I do have the wires separated and battery disconnected . Will take the gauge panel out again to see if something else is bare or touching . You know what it,s like, gotta see if it,s working and forget to go over it again when it does work.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Check the hot wire (large red) going to the ign. switch. These often get burnt & cause an intermitant open circuit.

[blazer2007]

well it wasn,t the ground wire,drove it all day and just going home it quit but started up right away. Some one online had similar problem and was the wires in the pick up coil in the dist. would short out randomly. will look at the red wire today and see if I have spare parts for the dist. to test

[blazer2007]

How do you bypass the ign. switch to see if that is my problem. Is a auto with column shift with tilt,wonder if the tilt is touching something. You mentioned large red wire or is it pinky red color ?

[vince1]

I think I'd run a hot wire to it and see if the problem goes away. If not it would be a trip to the junk yard to get another HEI. A pick up coil problem sounds like a good possibility to me also.

[blazer2007]

hope I don,t jinx myself but I ordered a ign, switch and while I was waiting changed the ign. module and cap, it looked bad inside, wasn,t it. put the ign sw. in and has been working for 2 days now but is nerve racking driving it especially at a busy intersection

[vince1]

My dad told the story of how his 36 Chev P/U would stall sometimes and always at the same intersection on Jasper avenue in Edmonton. Nobody could figure it out until he found a loose wire under the dash. That truck brought them to Vernon and eventually on to Quesnel when the plywood plant opened maybe in 1951. I think it was called Western Plywood, then Weldwood of Canada and now it's part of West Fraser.

I had to change the ignition switch in the 66. Sometimes in a certain position smoke would come pouring out of it.

[blazer2007]

I know Quesnel well ,born and raised in P.G. Dad was a saw filer for 45 years about the same time ,in the 50,s