My 1993 240 wagon was hard to start one day, after lots of cranking, misfiring, sputtering, a backfire or two, and smoke coming out of the oil filler cap. Finally I got it going with some spray ether in the air filter box. This happened out of nowhere - no degradation or deterioration of the starting or smooth running - started and ran routinely smooth always. It has happened several times again, but not every time. I replaced the ancient distributor cap, rotor, coil, the whole high tension wire set and the spark plugs. It seemed to start and run fine for a while but now I get this odd effect where it just dies all at once, unpredictably -- no sputtering, misfiring, knocking and shaking - it's almost like someone just turned the ignition key off - dead. All the warning lights come on. Then I can restart it with some cranking, but not too much (not nearly as badly as before I replaced all the ignition stuff). Then it will run smoothly again, until some unpredictable moment when it just decides to die. The car has always made a buzzing/whirring sound while running(I have had it 3 years) and I originally thought this was the fuel pump, maybe going bad. But I have listened to the main fuel pump under the car up close and it is definitely not the fuel pump. It seems to be loudest on the passenger side - maybe totally unrelated. I looked for the 25 amp fuse under the hood near the coil, like on my 1990 and 1985, but this 1993 does not seem to have that fuse - at least it is not in the same place (and I don't know where it might be). . Anyway, does anyone have an idea what I should work on next to solve this problem?
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