mechanics stunned! 1989 Cavalier dies/won't start/won't stay running

[toxic_3186]

SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I just bought a 1989 Chev. Cavalier a month and a half ago. When i bought it, it wasn't running the guy didn't know what was wrong with it. We took it to a mechanic and they put a new fuel injector in it. The car ran great for about 2 weeks then i was driving it one day and all of a sudden the radio started cutting in and out like it was off the station. The next thing i new the car had lost all power and came to a stop. I turned the car off, turned it on and it started again and drove fine for about 4 days.

I took it out in the morning and it drove fine. Then later that day i had to go to work and i got about 5 minutes down the road and it died. Same thing, radio cut in and out before it happened. Started it again and it went for about 10 minutes and died. I tried to crank it over again and it wouldn't-sounded like it was out of gas or the battery was dead.

Took it to the same mechanic and the "crank shaft" ended up being replaced. Car ran great for another week or so and then one day it just wouldn't start. Now it's sitting at the shop while the mechanic is scratching his head about what could be wrong now.

If anyone has ever had this happen or has any other suggestions please please PLEASE reply..thanx.

TOXIC_3186

[Three_Fingers]

Hmm...This sounds familiar...
What motor ya got innat sucker?
Sounds like a problem I had with a 2.8L in an S10 pickup, but the same thing could happen to the earlier 4 cylinders...
If it has an external ignition coil (like most with distributors did), try this:
Bend the power leads to the coil OPPOSITE the direction they naturally wanna bend in and have somebody try to start the car while you hold the wires this way.
If it starts-all's ya need to do is chop off the plug connector for the coil power leads a ways up from the plug and get ya another one with nice long leads from the junkyard and splice it in where the old one was and re-connect it.
The problem is, over time-the wires vibrate and eventually break (my case it was the coil negative lead) right at the point where the wire enters the connector...Makes for a helluva bitch of an intermittent running problem-took me a year to find it after replacing damn near everything else first.

My truck would hesitate-weird radio problems (from the surge of the coils field charging/collapsing erratically), backfire thru the exhaust and just STOP.

One day I was sick up and fed of trying to find a seemingly impossible problem and standing next to my truck with the engine running and I jammed my shop rag down on top of the coil and THE MOTOR STOPPED!
So then I found it. Bent the wires backwards and the damned thing restarted and ran great for awhile.
Turns out everything I did screwing around with the distributor and cap and whatnot under the hood was disturbing the wires a bit.
I thought taking the cap off and bending the center conductor on the rotor was fixing it-Turns out every time I removed the distributor cap-I was repositioning the coil wires a bit so they'd make contact for a while until vibration/engine torque/potholes, etc. made them break contact again.
This problem will mimic a bad crank position sensor, bad ignitor module, bad ignition switch, etc. Any other condition that would shut off the engine and disable it.
It's also one of the last places many mechanics would look as they usually wanna start on the ass-end (read: expensive) of a problem.
Give it a shot-wiggle/bend the coil power wires where they go into the plug and see what happens.

Hope this is it 'cause it sure sounds like the same problem Mine had-Mine was an '86.

[studballs]

alternator

[toxic_3186]

Hey Three_Fingers, thanx so much for the advice....unfortunatley...it didn't really help me.
My cavy is a 2.0L, 4 cylinder engine and doesn't have a distributor. Instead it has a DSI (direct spark ignition) so there won't be any exterior distributor coils.. Still stumped..i know it's not the altenator as i have two (1 spare) and both have been tested. everythings fine.....If you can think of anything else that might cause this problem, please let me know, thanx..

toxic_3186