Walked away from my car after starting to allow warm-up. Came back and engine had quit. Cranked, started right up and in 5 seconds, quit again. Fuel OK. Checked ballast resistor. Suspected distributor pick-up or ignition control module. Had spare ICM, no magnetic PU. Besides, would rather have not had to pull distributor. Swapped in spare (new KEM) ICM. Car started right up & proceeded to drive home.

This was a 20 year old Standard Motor Products replacement ICM. Years ago, the mag pick-up in distributor failed. I guess I was lucky this time.

Mitch

Ignition modules often just fail w/o warning or obvious casue; my Direct Connection orange box failed at 2K mi at a show. Fortunately, parts are quite inexpensive so I always just carry spares.

Out of curiosity, I dug out the potting and took apart my dead orange box to see what in it had failed. It is very hard and messy to get them apart, and the only thing I could say with certainty that the main transistor and associated connections were NOT what failed.