1.6TD losing power when gearing down

[jampoel]

I recently put a 1.6TD into a samurai and ran it for 4 days until a 45 minute drive home I started gearing down to stop and it started to stutter and then it died and had trouble starting again. I waiting a couple minutes it fired up. The next morning the battery was dead I checked all the connections and found a lose one form the battery to the diesel relay and notice that the top of the relay had burned up a bit. I replaced the relay and tightened everything up. Gave it a jump start and it fired right up. Drove it about 10 minutes and same thing I started to slow down, it started to shake and shutter. this time I took it out of gear and waited for it to finish its hickup and it smoothed out and everything was fine. Parked it at the hardware store for a few minutes and drove it home, power was fine all the way until I started to gear down again. this time it shut off completely. I came to a stop turned it over and fired right up drove the last couple
minutes home and it died on the way into the drive. I starts up fine again in the drive and idles fine I reved it up sitting there and it started to hick-up a little coming back down t idle then it smoothed itself out.
Any help would be appreciated

[Doug]

I had a similar intermittent running situation that turned out to be a poor connection at the shut down solenoid on the fuel pump which has to have voltage all the time that the engine is running. If it is interrupted because the wire is broken inside the insulation for example then the solenoid closes cutting off the fuel. I cut the old connector away crimping on a new one to solve the problem. Often wire that is subject to vibration and movement will work harden inside the insulation enough to break. I had the same situation with a coil supply wire on a '70's vintage motorcycle earlier this year that left me sitting at the side of the road hitching a ride home to get the trailer.

[Rabbit TD]

It's either power to the solenoid or the solenoid itself.  Another good thing about these motors is that as long as the solenoid itself works {listen for it to tick when you touch the wire to it} the motor will run as long as the starter will spin it or you can push it.  You can always just hotwire the solenoid in an emergency after removing the original wire. Then if it's bad too you can just pull it out and take out the little spring and plunger and put it back on.  You will have to stall it to stop the engine though but always be able to get it home to check it out.