Random cutting out.....

[roachjuice]

Ok so I've been chasing this cutting out problem for 2 months now. When it cuts out it will show lean for a split second then go way rich and finally go back to normal. This is just driving. Highway city doesnt matter. Vac or boost. Same. Ive changed hep. Hep connectors. 3 coils. 4 different chips. Pm and lm. At first I thought it was my lm and when I tapped the chip it would die. So friend of mine had one laying around. Tap the chip and nothing. So I think it's fixed because it didnt do it for a day. Wrong. Kept doing it. There is some dumb connector under the hood that's all rotted I was thinking about clipping all the wires and but connecting them together. It goes to the between the pm am under hood harness. Like to the hep and stuff. I clipped 2 and wired them together and it still does it. I'm running out of ideas. I have video of it as usuall. I can upload it later.

[roachjuice]

Just got rid of that connector. Took it for a drive and about 3 miles into it bam. It comes back.

[cordes]

Does the tach die when it cuts out?

Does anything electronic cut out such as the radio, HVAC, etc?

[roachjuice]

Yea the tach dies. I know that means hep. Radio and stuff stay on. I think it's this stupid stock hep wiring. Any way of getting around those connectors? I wiggled the black one while idling and it died. It's the wiring on the hep side. That thin black crap. So I electrical taped the shyt out of it and wiggled some more. Nothing. Took it for a ride and it seemed normal. Maybe it was a combo of all that crap. Who knows. I'll post back up if I have another problem. But if anyone knows a way to get rid of the stock connectors on the hep please post up. I tried getting rid of them before and came up with a no start. So I got some connectors from an extra harness I had laying around and another hep and it started. That was about 3 months ago. Electrical pisses me off lol.

[audiomaninc]

I've bypassed the HEP connectors...no biggie. Just grap your multimeter and set it to audible continuity. Probe one wire on the HEP side and simultaneously probe the wires on the computer side one at a time until you find which one corresponds. Without doing this you're just guessing. When you find the right one, cut it and connect it with solder and tape, crimp connectors, bubblegum, or whatever you use. Problem solved. I had the exact same cutout problem and hardwiring the HEP fixed it 100%. Not hard to do; in fact it should be done on every TM if you ask me; it takes about 10 minutes. Good luck!

[supercrackerbox]

I feel your pain. I've been chasing the same gremlin in my Charger for months, and it seems to have been the HEP. Scary thing is, the car left me stranded with no other choice but to try it again, and the HEP that worked is the one that was swapped out when the problem started. My stash is depleted, parts stores want $80 for a new one, dealer wants $120 (but said he might be able to get me a 10% off deal if I buy one for each car )

I took one apart tonight, and there's really nothing to them. Audio, are you saying that the failure is in the connectors themselves?

[audiomaninc]

I feel your pain. I've been chasing the same gremlin in my Charger for months, and it seems to have been the HEP. Scary thing is, the car left me stranded with no other choice but to try it again, and the HEP that worked is the one that was swapped out when the problem started. My stash is depleted, parts stores want $80 for a new one, dealer wants $120 (but said he might be able to get me a 10% off deal if I buy one for each car )

I took one apart tonight, and there's really nothing to them. Audio, are you saying that the failure is in the connectors themselves?

yes indeed! At least in my case. I'd been swapping HEP's for a couple weeks, and it didn't make sense to me that I'd put one back in that I'd thought was bad, only to have it work fine for awhile. Then, the car shut off on the highway one morning and I got out and wiggled the connectors and it started back up. I realized that it's not the HEP going bad at random, or even the physical connectors themselves; it's the rear area of the factory connector where the wires and pins are molded into the plastic. That's where the connection went bad, and since it's a molded piece, there's no way around it other than just bypassing them altogether. I personally used quick disconnect bullet terminals on mine just in case I do have to replace the HEP for real one day. I haven't had one issue with the HEP since making this modification.

[roachjuice]

^^^ that's exactly whats going on.

[audiomaninc]

just hardwire it, it'll make your car fun to drive again. Do you want me to draw up a diagram for you?

[supercrackerbox]

I will look into this as well. I think you're really onto something. There's no moving parts, just six wires and they're potted inside the module. So the only thing that can fail is the wires themselves from heat and vibration. Go ahead and post a diagram.

I think the only thing keeping mine alive right now is that the wires are securely ziptied to the harness and not wiggling around.

[roachjuice]

Ok I figured it out. Hard wired it in. Here's a diagram. The signal wire is the white one. That wire is the same. Orange is power and black with blue stripe is ground. Those two swap.
So in this case the ground on the hep side is the middle wire and the power is the outside right. The signal on both the black and white connectors stays the same.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO ONE WIRE AT A TIME!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!

Car starts and runs. I havent driven it yet. I'll post up results

[audiomaninc]

Good job! you beat me to it. Just don't lose those connectors, in case you need to reference them in the future. Or...keep the diagram in your glove box.

[roachjuice]

Ok well on the way home from my parents it cut out as usual. But it took longer this time. Maybe mine is the hep. I wiggled the wires while idling and nothing. It didn't do it till I was on the highway. And that was like 7 miles from the parents.

[audiomaninc]

That's friggin tragic. I hate tracing down problems like this in older cars. It could be anything!

[roachjuice]

Ok if an hep is bad it just won't start right? Or will it random cut out? I hardwired it in and its still doing it.

[cordes]

Ok if an hep is bad it just won't start right? Or will it random cut out? I hardwired it in and its still doing it.

A bad hep can randomly cut out while you're driving. If the tach drops dead while it happens it's most likely the HEP.

[roachjuice]

Dang. I have another at home that has the ends already cut off. I'll try that. Thanks.

[roachjuice]

Distributor maybe?

[cordes]

Distributor maybe?

It couldn't hurt to inspect it.

[roachjuice]

Swapped dizzy and a spare rotor I had laying around. So far so good only been 5 miles.