a stock 84 would have a ballasted resister wire heading to the coil I believe. You need to see if your system has been modified and if the coil matches the type of ignition system you have. First way to check that is see what color wires you've got coming to your coil + side.

1275$ for a head gasket? thats gotta hurt :(

+1 regarding the coil, its something you can change yourself in no time. take a couple pictures of it then remove it & take it to a autopart store to get a replacement. not sure about automatics but for mine i got a mexican made Bosch for about 30$. use the pictures to reinstall the new one properly. if it doesnt fix the problem at least its something cheap you can cross of the list. (always start with the cheapest things and work your way up)

good luck!

 

Yeah whenever I tried to update my location it wouldn't update so I started writing it at the bottom of my posts. I live in Staten Island, NY - the mechanic is on 73rd street in manhattan.

Where are you located? Not in your profile.

Some distributers have a small braided wire that grounds the plate the points mount on. Make sure that has not broken or almost so and is well attached to clean areas on both ends. While your at it, check that the engine ground strap is in good condition and also has clean weel attached ends.

I'll try to check the other things you guys mentioned in a bit (thank you!) but I will say this last mechanic I'm currently going back and forth with is a British car specialist and I did see a few Austin americas, healeys, rolls royces, land rovers, and jags in the place.

The last time I went there I told the owner i researched my recurring issue and thought it could be the torque converter. He just laughed and said "it's not the torque converter."

I've had coils that went bizerk giving similar sounding symptoms, though the auto tranny may be the culprit.

Since it's an automatic (an important component of your car and in diagnosing it), there may be issues with that automatic. My first bit of advice is prior to you leaving the car with a specialist or mechanic or whatever, make sure they have experience with automatic A-series vehicles. The stalling symptom could indeed be linked to the torque converter, I'd imagine. But I don't have experience with them myself, so I'm only guessing.

What coil do you have and has it ever been replaced? I know of someone who installed the wrong or a bad coil and he kept melting the rubbing block on the points which caused his points to close up often. Consider rather than replacing your points again, get a pertronix or similar points-less ignition.

Something you can check yourself: Open up your distributer cap and grasp the tip of the rotor arm-- if you can wiggle it (the metal tip) independently from the bakelight/plastic portion then the rotor could be bad.

Ask me how I know about the rotor thing...

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3tL1Mmmj00

If you had a timing light and a dwell meter, you could check the basics yourself (the dwell meter will tell you if you have the correct points gap)

I have NO EXPERIENCE with automatic gearboxes but something suggests its the box not any of the other stuff.  Others will chime in, but I'm guessing the auto box was not "disengaging" causing the stalling....

I want to love this car, I really do, but shortly after I got it I started having issues with the engine. For the past 3 months I have taken it to five different local "specialists" - all of whom could not fix the issue. These last people have had the car for most of the month, and have returned it to me three times thinking they had fixed the issue, only to have me limp (or tow) it back there the next day because of another issue. I've been on this forum and every other forum in existence talking about this problem but no one has been able to come to a conclusion. I've spent about $2000 so far on repairs that have yielded little results. Please someone out there listen to this one more time and come up with some kind of a suggestion:

First of all, I have an 84 998cc automatic with a single HS4 carb.

Here's what I'm dealing with: The first time I had an issue I had completed a two-hour trip on the highway. Upon coming to a the first light off the highway, the car stalled out. I was able to get the car started again but it would continue to stall out at the occaisional stoplight. It was able to make the trip home.  Over time, the stalling became a regular occurrance - it no longer happened after being on the highway. It would stall putting the car into gear - I would have to give it some gas to keep it going. Even in gear it felt like the car was towing a bus. I started reverting to pushing the car into parallel parking spots. At one point I was driving on the highway and it finally rumbled out and died.

I removed and cleaned the carburetor and upon reinstalling it actually started up and drove around but still had the same issues it did before it died.

The first mechanic I took it to claimed it was the points. I bought a new set with distributor cap and condenser and they replaced it for $80 - no change.

The second mechanic I took it to decided it was the carburetor - they removed it and cleaned it as I had done but nothing changed. They said it was the automatic transmission and that it was beyond their knowledge to fix - I was charged $175.

The third mechanic I took it to said there was a problem with the choke cable. They replaced it, no difference. Then they said it had low compression in the cylinders so they replaced the headgasket. Total cost $1275

I took it home after they replaced the headgasket and was as happy as a person who just shelled out $1275 could be. Upon making it home (20 mile trip, mostly highway) the car coughed and sputtered and died. I had the third mechanic's towing service bring it back to their shop. Total Cost $270

The mechanic said that the points had burnt out because they must have been installed improperly. No charge and I was on my way. It ran great again until I drove it to work the next morning. The car stalled out when I put it into reverse. Then stalled when I started it. I was able to drive it back to the shop and they said they would keep it until they were 100% positive the problem was solved. A week later they told me the timing needed to be adjusted and they drove it around all week with no issues. I picked it up from them on Friday - no charge.

On the highway yesterday the car started feeling like it was pulling a lot of weight again. The engine is very slow to respond and the transmission does not shift as it should. Today I tried to start it up and nothing happened.

 

I don't want to get rid of this car, but if no one is going to fix it I dont know what I can do. Can anyone suggest anything? Please?

 

Thank you for your time,
Rich Gilberto
Staten Island, NY