Mondial t/348 Engine cutting out

Hi all, just thought I'd share a problem and the resolution in case anyone else suffers the same issue.

PROBLEM

Car was running rough and appeared to be dropping a complete bank intermittently. The problem was worse at gentle throttle, was RPM independent, and the car would stall at most red lights. In reverse, the car was at it's worst, running almost exclusively on 4 cylinders. When running particularly bad, the tacho would drop and bounce around.

CAUSE

I initially thought it might be the 5-8 crank sensor as it drives the tacho also. The problem was VERY intermittent and unpredictable, so we first tried the simple (and cheap) things, including fuel treatment, spark plugs, and cleaning all connectors. No real improvement over the course of these, and if anything, it got worse. This afternoon I relented to attack the crank sensors. With the car on stands, I removed the (mangled) shield, and found the wire leading to the 5-8 crank sensor routed under the inner gear shift cable. It looked okay but was tight so I loosened the shift cable hold down and extracted the sensor wire and guess what I found!

REMEDY

Pretty simple really - cut, clean, re-solder, and heat shrink to seal. The car has been transformed!
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Rik,

There is a plastic clip that the wire was in that appears to be there purely for that purpose. That suggests to me that the wire was correctly routed. The problem looks to have been where the wire turns to go over the gear cable - this turn may have been in the wrong location by a few mm. I have re-routed it now to cross the gear cable way before the gear cable crosses the bottom of the engine.

This isn't explained very well at all - I should have taken a picture while I was there..... When I do my next oil change, I'll be sure to get a picture or 2.

Dave