Not country, but very, very nuke. LLNL is bristling with activity these days. It's a great little town, and they've managed to keep the developers from paving over everything in sight so far. The population is probably quite a bit larger than it was in the 50's though.

Darn! Of course this morning she shut off again on the freeway. I started it right back up and kept going all the way to work without a problem.

The A.P.E. mechanic will look at it this afternoon -- no charge -- believes given everything that's been done, DME relay, connections cleaning, tightening, CHT replacement, etc., may be something with the ECU board. He saw some solder issues with the old DME, believes there could be an ECU board issue that he could quickly fix.

I'm at a loss, really. It seems the "usual" troubleshooting and corrective measures have been taken, but still the car shuts off. I think this A.P.E. wrench will get it figured out. Very knowledgeable.

jtratza, I'm in northern Virginia, in a suburb of DC. Lots of traffic, but fun, windy backroads for the weekends.

Keep you guys posted. And ZOANAS, yes, definitely have a spare DME relay in the glove box!

EMJ, Did he check the potentiameter? BTW I know the are well. I used to live north of DC. Folks and family in Keswick. Wish I could visit some of those roads again in my car.

Not sure if this is checked since I read through the previous posts pretty quickly but when my '87 was doing this it ended up being minute, almost invisible, cracks in the solder of the DME unit itself, not the relay. Several posts have show the details of how to find it. Keep in mind these are very hard to see, in particular if your eyes aren't all that good...like mine.
Sorry if this has already been suggested.

I'm still thinking that there is a problem in or around the relay. Before you start opening up the DME, swap it with a known good one if you can. The symptoms you're having are exactly those caused by an intermittent relay.

Guys, thanks a bunch for the suggestions. Yes, the car now has a new DME relay as of yesterday, but my A.P.E. mechanic is also thinking along the lines of cracks in the solder of the DME itself, so good catch! Very helpful!

Keep you guys posted!

Okay, The A.P.E. mass flow sensor mechanic pulled out the DME and did indeed find some tiny, minute cracks. Very small, but you could see them. He soldered them up, put the DME back in the car, tested fine. I drove home the 35 miles, sweating bullets, waiting for the car to shut-off -- it didn't.

I'll be driving the car this weekend, so I guess we'll see. Too bad, cause the car screams when you stand on it. Very strong with the A.P.E. chip and mass flow sensor, and B&B exhaust -- pulls to the redline with no hesitation whatsoever. Hopefully, we're past the issue. No fun driving with one eye on the road, the other looking for a shoulder to pull over on. :(

Keep you posted. Again, thanks for all of the help.

I needed sunlight and a magnifying glass to see these cracks.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138416394.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138416459.jpg

Brain surgery should be a last resort. I was able to isolate this problem with a known good DME brain. These cracked joints made intermittent contact. The car would start and run when parked in the sun, but not in the shade on a cool day. I have had no problems since re-solder 18 months ago.

I almost spent $1,600 on a new one but thanks to this board I fixed mine. In my case the broken joints were even less visible than in this pic.

xlr8, WOW! Amazing pic's! Thanks!

We found 3 tiny cracks -- almost needed a microscope for sure! He soldered them. Hoping that fix will correct this issue.

Will be driving the car all day. Let you know how it goes.

Also, jtratza, my mechcanic also checked the potentiometer and said it tested okay. Forgot to mention this yesterday.

All, thanks again!

Quick update...

I've put about a 100 miles on the car since the cracked joints on the DME were soldered on Friday, 1/27, and the car has not stalled once since! Hope I didn't jinx myself, but the car hasn't gone that long without stalling since the shut-offs began back in October.

See the excellent pic's on the DME cracked joints posted above. These aren't pic's of my DME, but the tiny cracks were the same (Thanks, xlr8!). Took all of 10 minutes to re-solder and the results -- so far -- have been excellent.

So here's a list of what was checked and repaired in regards to this stalling issue. Granted, we may have had a combination of issues, but it appears ultimately that the cracked joints on the DME were the main culprit:

--DME relay replaced -- cracked joints on the internals. May have contributed to problem
--Cylinder head temp sensor -- tested fine
--Potentiometer on the mass flow sensor checked -- tested fine
--DME connections -- loose, tightened, snap tested. May have contributed to problem
--Mass flow sensor connections -- secured pin connections.
--Ignition coil connections -- Corrosion build-up, sanded down, refastened. May have contributed to problem
--DME (Actual ECU board itself) -- 3 tiny cracked joints found. Soldered the joints. Appears to be the ultimate fix to the problem (100 miles and counting without stalling). This was most likely root cause of the engine shut-offs.

Hope these notes will help others.

Hope the issue doesn't re-occur, but I have a better handle on what to check for, thanks to all of you guys who have helped. THANK YOU! You guys are great!

If the issue re-occurs, I think DME replacement might be the only option (As suggested earlier in this thread).

THANKS ALL, again. Keep you posted!

That's great news! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Another satisfied Pelican.

Here are some pic's. Couldn't upload last week when I first posted.

She's running awesome now. No issues since the DME cracked joints were soldered last week.

Thanks again guys....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138937772.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138937804.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1138937821.jpg

Good to hear Ed. Love that Virginia winter brown grass against a white 911.

Another place to look into on the 3.2 is in the distributor itself. Since the distributor no longer needs to be checked for anything but a new rotor from time to time...don't forget checking the springs and weights in there. I neglected mine , and with time, heat ,ozone and no lubrication coming up from the oil splash...I lost a spring. This in turn munched one of the weights and made the car run erratic. After replacing all of the junk parts, I now check the entire dist out @ every valve adjustment.
Marty

Bravo! this board rocks! The power of knowledge and a flat six = everlasting fun.

Thanks! I had the same problem and is now fixed!