[mustanghusker]

Had the car out for a drive not too long ago and after about 20 minutes of driving I was almost back to my garage and the car made 2 funny revs and then completely shut down.  Mid turn I realized that I had no power steering!  I pulled over but couldn't get it to even crank, let alone start.  I was able to coast into my garage and for kicks tried to start it again about 5 hours later, and wouldn't you know, it started right up. Before this issue I had the battery tested and they said it was good, but they said my alternator didn't seem to be putting much more than a minimal charge on it.  Could a bad alternator cause the complete shut down that I had?  I am hesitant to drive it to my shop across town and am thinking I might need to just get a tow.  I fired it up today after having it on the charger for the morning and was able to drive around in circles for 10 minutes without issue. 

 

Any thoughts on what the culprit might be?  I hate chasing gremlins!

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[tejon007]

Could be alternator, battery, DME, regulator, etc., etc.



What does your voltmeter show (the gauge on the far right of the dash gauge set)? Has that reading changed recently?



A wild guess is to take your spare (and known to be good) DME and swap it with the one in your fuse box and see what happens. Takes 5 minutes. Wait, you said it didn't crank? If it cranked and didn't start, I'd try the spare DME.



Because you said it wouldn't crank, but then 5 hrs later it cranked and ran fine: If the battery was dead and you didn't charge it, this points away from the battery and charge level. Could be a bad battery cable that as it gets hot, resistance increases and the electrons can't get through. Unlikely, but possible.



A competent mechanic should be able to troubleshoot it fairly easily.

Oh, and glad you are ok after losing the power steering mid-turn.

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[Waylander]

If it started after 5 hours its not the alternator, I would change the regulator in the alternator the brushes will be very worn after 30 years



Replace the DME relay and clean all the ground points

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[mustanghusker]

Thanks for the ideas.  I am hoping to take a look at it this weekend and try to figure out what is going on.

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