Intermittent stall FIXED!
I was working on a 97 Grand Prix with an unusual stalling problem. At first it would stall on rare occasion while driving. Sometimes it would restart and other times it would just crank and crank and all you could do is let it sit a few minutes. Another symptom was the idiot lights on the dash would start flashing like a x-mas tree while it was stalling out. And when it was difficult to restart, with the key in the on position the idiot lights on the dash would be very dim. I also found it odd that when it would restart it would idle fine forever and could be reved up no problem. It would only die when in gear and only after having reached aproxiately 18 mph. Not only were there no codes for any of this, there was no memory at all for the PCM. It was like the PCM kept being reset every time this happenned. Looking back I should have paid more attention to this.
I usually work on Fords and when it comes to intermittent stalling the majority of their 86-95 vehicles would die due to overheating of the ignition control module. So because that was the easiest part to get to I wasted $140 replacing that. After more research I learned that on the 3100 and 3800 engines the crank position sensor was a common culprit for stalling. So that was another $40 wasted in replacing that.
By now Im getting really frustrated. I'm banging on the PCM, the dash, steering column and while doing this inadvertenly knocked off a 2 in square cover just below the ignition cylinder and find the ignition switch. Well I figured I haven't banged on that yet and sure enough a few taps with the butt end of a screwdriver and all the symptoms disappeared.
I normally dont post on these. Thankfully any questions I have had already been addressed. Bear in mind that because this was an electrical issue your symptoms may - will likely be different but if you find any similarities to your own problems that switch seems like a good place to start. I hope this saves somone else a lot of grief and prescious money.
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