Suddenly dead after an uphill right hand turn

My '79 242 4 speed was moving very well as usual with what the fuel
gauge says was about 1/3 of a tank. I'm doing about 50mph, slow
reasonably (well, alright maybe a little quickly) into a sharp uphill
right hand turn. No warning. One hiccup then nothing.


Electrics are fine. Turn the key, starter motor works beautifully. Try
starting about 3 times. Never starts. Neighbor brings me home, I call
AAA, and 1/2 hr later tow truck arrives moments after i try a final
time and, of course, she fires up as usual. No muss, no fuss. Like
nothing ever happened.

New plug wires a few weeks ago. New cap/rotor few weeks ago. Same
fuel. Very very rainy here in NY, i don't recall driving through a
puddle or anything.

Fuel pump quiet as a mouse. Bought my gas from the same place as
usual. I often let the tank go close to empty (it's one of my few
bad habits). My 242's not special.. God only knows how many hundreds
of thousands of miles it has been driven. I love the car, and take
very good care of it. It looks like a rust bucket but it runs like the
wind. (A brick in the wind).

I've owned the car for the past 5 years. Reliable reliable reliable.

Any suggestions regarding how to attack this problem? I was fortunate
to be only a few minutes from my home. Next time, i may not be the
case.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

BTW, there is a fine Volvo mechanic in town.. but I've done all
repairs except for front end work.

Larry

 

Intermittent failures of this type on your car are usually the fuel pump
relay or the pickup coil in the distributor. The fuel pump relay can be
removed, the cap popped off, and any cracked solder on the little
circuit board fixed. The pickup coil is about $20 and is not too hard
to replace.