HI,

I have a wildly intermittent issue with my 1980 242 DL. Car has B21F engine, Bosch ignition, and K-jet fuel injection. A small handful of times over the past many months the car would just turn off while driving. Engine just cuts out, no bucking or misfiring, just turns off. I pull over -- fortunately safely each time -- turn the key all the way to off, and then it restarts immediately on the first crank. No more problem after that. Also, and maybe unrelated but worth mentioning, every so often it will be hard to start. Again, only a very few times over several months. Here, it will crank with no apparent spark. Extensive cranking, 3-4-5 times with no success. Then, all of sudden, fires right up on barely the first crank, like turning on a light switch. Cannot isolate or duplicate the condition in order to test.

I have replaced several things and discovered a few "possible causes" along the way, such as ignition switch, cap, rotor, plugs, plug wires, coil, both fuel pumps. Running out of ideas.

Many years ago (15-20) I had a similar condition crop up, and was lucky enough to be able to isolate it to an intermittently failing Hall sensor in the distributor. Replaced the distributor and all has been fine since then...until now.

Appreciate any ideas to check further, and also any descriptions of conditions you have experienced with a wonky Hall sensor.

Thanks.

Mike