[sparna]

Just finished rebuilding my SJ70 (1996 model with SJ80 carb), took it out for a test drive and it went fine, idles fine, but as I was going slowly around a corner it died - no sputtering, lights were all still on (I think all the warning lights on the dash came on), just realised the engine had died when I realised I couldn’t accelerate.

Tried starting again, and with a bit of foot it got going, but as I was trying to start it the lights were all fading in and out - like a dead battery. Went for about 50m before it died again and I couldn’t get it going.

Fortunately was only a block from home, so I pushed it back, stuck the battery on a charger, but it said it was half full still. Stuck it back in the zook and it started fine. Unhooked battery and it kept going and would rev fine, with lights, radio etc on. So I think I can rule out the alternator? It’s also got a new (well from a wreckers) alternator in it - this being relevant because originally when I bought this vehicle it had serious overheating issues and got cooked on the long drive home. - ended up limping it for a few hours (hence the rebuild). During this time it would die in just the same way whenever I would slow down to pull over to give it time to cool down - the engine would just die, no sputtering. Same battery - but the battery indicator is green and seems tn hold a charge fine.

Any suggestions? Am I over complicating this? I was thinking perhaps it was something to do with idle adjustment on the (stupidly complex) SJ80 carb - but fuel issues don’t explain to me why the dash lights would all flicker, and I would have thought fuel issues would result in a rougher stall when it dies.

Pretty new to this, went straight from only ever having done an oil change to rebuilding this engine so if there’s something obvious I’m overlookkng then forgive me! It’s been a great little engine to learn on though (apart from this damn carb with a million different hoses coming out of it)