84 240 - Lh 2.0 - Random Stalling

Lately, my 240 has been randomly stalling. It will start right back up though. It seems to happen most often at operating temperature.

The tach will start to dive, and if I hit hit the gas, sometimes it will keep going. Usually it gives up and I pull off to the side of the road and wait till it's safe to restart and keep driving.

Honestly, I do not know where to start. Ive had this thing over 10 years, luckily, problem free. Does anyone have any advice for where to start?

1) I'd inspect the wiring harness for bare wires. If it hasn't been replaced, that would be a likely cause of your problem.

2) At the same time, do any other electrical components shut down? If so, look for corrosion on the battery terminals, especially the thin red wire that goes to the junction block on the relay bracket mounted to the inner fender. Family had an '84 245GL that would randomly start losing electrical power every two years. Sometimes would go completely dead and remain so until the positive battery cable terminal was cleaned, other times, would shut off, then restart no problem immediately afterward. Turned out that the OE Volvo batteries seemed to spew acid out at the vent caps more than other battery brands. Only occured with the original style translucent case batteries, whereas the later black case Volvo battery installed in the car in 1995 never fouled the terminals the rest of the time we owned the car.

3) How's fuse #13? If marginal, it can cause random stalling, as well as gauges going dead while the car continues to run, etc. Next time the car's fully warm and running, give fuse 13 a spin and see if it stalls.

check the ignition computer, wiring and components. what you're describing happens with my 85 lh2.2/chrysler ignition car because of intermittent connectivity at the ICU. i suspect you are on breakerless ignition with your car, though; still, worth the check.

maybe carry a timing light/test lights to rig up when the car goes down. then you could (slowly) verify what is or isn't working when it goes down.

i have driven around before with a timing light duct-taped to my windshield. there is no shame.

^LH 2.0 also uses mopar lean-burn ignition. Early 1983 cars were 100% mopar, ignition-wise. Mid-1983 and later had a Bosch coil and distributor. The randon spark dropout problem usually appears if someone has unplugged the ICU and reconnected it, especially on those cars that have the guide sleeves installed on the terminal pins on the ICU. It's also not an LH-Jetronic exclusive problem. lha1992 seems to be having similar problems with his '82 245 that has the B21F-MPG engine (K-Jet).

I bought an 83 240 wagon from a guy that was doing exactly what you described. I drove it down the street and back to his house and it died. I puled out a voltmeter and realized the coil was not getting any power with the key on. I just ran a wire directly from the battery to the coil and drove the car home. It was a corroded connection in the gray connector at the fire wall. The thing is, if you have the original harness on that car pulling that connector apart is very risky. The insulation on the engine harness could crumble off all those wires where they come out of that connector.

My dad told me he had a similar issue with one of his 240s once except it only happened on rainy or humid days, turns out the ignition coil somehow developed a pinhole in the side and would build condensation on wet days and short the coil and cause no spark. Took him months to find it, check your ignition coil maybe?

Reviving a dead thread here. There's too many times that nobody reports back once their odd issue is fixed. This car has basically been sitting for 3 years, with the exception of being started and ran for 30-45 minutes once a month or so. I would rev it up and get it to replicate the stalling behavior, dropping RPMs dramatically, keep throttle down and it would sometimes stay alive. Eventually I couldn't get it to stall. But then, in May of 23, I started the car to make sure it starts and everything. This time, I smelled gas. Found this under passenger tire:



Under further investigation, I found it to be the fuel hose between the intake pump and the main pump:



So, being the procrastinator I know we can all be (in my case exacerbated by being spoiled and in a 3 year lease with a super nice 21 GMC Sierra), I waffled on it for 8 months. Come time to turn the truck in, I'm suddenly ready to make the fix. So, New Year's weekend I replaced this hose with 7/16" O'Reilly Gates Fuel Hose:



Result: Success. Stalling was a fuel issue. What I think happened was when I had previously replaced the main fuel pump, the action of dropping the whole assembly down caused a kink, and a hole in the fuel supply line up stream where there is a holding bracket. I have been driving it for 2 weeks regularly now and have had no issues (other than a failed smog test due to high NOx).

I hope this helps anyone who has a similar issue. Looking forward to daily driving a brick again, sans car payment LOL.