She stopped running.

["Ed Garbade" <edgarbade@xxxx>]

I know this is likely a rehash of some old issues but I didn't know what to
search for in the archive (tried "shut off" and "no start" but the returned
response was overwhelming) so I will appologize up front.

Last week I was driving my car and it was running fine. I was sitting in
traffic on a hot day at a stop light with the clutch in. Engine temp and
voltage meters were well within the normal range 2 minutes earlier. No AC
so the windows were down and it was a bit noisy. There was no sputtering,
discernable noise, or any smell. Put it in gear and nothing happend.
Looked at the dash lights and noticed the engine had apparently shut off.

Tried to restart and it turned over fine but would not start. Got that
flooded smell so I pushed it to the side and let it sit for an hour. Tried
to restart and got the flooded smell again almost immediately. Towed it
home and let it sit. The next morning I was traveling for work so I figured
I would work on it when I got home. Went to the garage first thing in the
morning and immediatly noticed the smell of gas (flooded smell again vs.
just raw fuel). No spots on the floor so I don't think it is a leak.

As a little bit of history, in the past I had what I thought was the hot
start problem. Shut the car off when it was hot and it would easily restart
within a couple minutes. Let it sit for 5 minutes and it would not start.
I bought the push button relay to activate the cold start valve as a
temporary fix but it never seemed to help; however, I did discover that if I
held the accelerator to the floor it would start. In any case I took it to
Rob Grady's last Nov. and had a lot of needed work done. We replaced the
accumulator (used a NOS) and even the fuel distributer. It seemed to work
fine but when I got it home (near Charleston, SC) the symptoms returned.
Since I had a solution that worked I decided to let sleeping dogs lie. I
tend to doubt this is my current problem but thought I would mention it just
in case.

I would appreciate insight where to start on 3 problems. I would be
thankful for a response on the list, directly or a point to threads in the
archive. My biggest concern is to solve the starting problem (I assume it
is electrical like maybe resistor or coil). Next would be the hot start
issue discribed above. Third would be the AC.

As far as the AC goes, I am sure I have a freon leak. What I need to know
is if anyone has some type of reference material to make me smart enough to
talk with an AC shop. I would also appreciate a list of parts I will likely
need to repair/replace (I have seen posts in the past outlining some items
like dryers but did not know if that was a comprehensive list) and whether
these parts are exclusive to the DMC dealers. The reason I ask this is the
only shop local to me that does R-12 is "willing to look at it and see if it
is worth his time" (guess you can be arrogant if you are the only game in
town) and may require use of his vendors.

As a bit of fun there was one interesting note to being stopped in traffic.
Here I am sitting in the middle of a very busy 4 lane road, flashers on,
door up, pushing the car to the side of the road. A guy in a Porshe pulls
up to my right (blocking access to the shoulder and a second lane of
traffic) to ask me for directions. I didn't know where the street he was
looking for was and told him so. He started to drive off and stopped
suddenly. "Are you pushing your car?" I almost said "DUH"! In any case he
pulled over and helped.

Thanks,

Ed Garbade
10541