My friends 88 Plymouth Grand Fury cuts off after a while and has to wait 2 or 3 minutes before it cranks back up. I replaced the Ballastor and cleaned the carb with carbcleaner. The car never stalls or runs groggy. It just cuts off. Any ideas what this might be? Fuel filter maybe but that would make it stall etc on take offs? Fuel Pump?

318 engine

coil

ecu/coil/dist pickup. let it idle until it acts up then take the wire off of the coil negative primary terminal and (w ign "on") w a jumper wire jump the terminal (not the wire) to ground repeatedly like Morse Code and see if the coil secondary will kick up a spark & if so do you have another spare dist that you can plug in & spin it by hand (ign on) & also see if it will produce a spark. In the meantime check the reluctor gap and want no more than .008" at the widest point and no less than ~.006 at the closest checked w a brass gauge and different reluctor vanes portrude out further (just slightly though) but the vac adv changes clearances quite a bit but K.I.S.S. you'll probably see something apparent well before this. The dist has to trigger the ECU then the ECU grounds the coil primary. Holler when you discover it.

Does it have that silly box mounted to air cleaner?

no box mounted to air cleaner....

Ok just an update on the car. It is still cutting off. Here is what I have done(we). Replaced ballistor,coil,fuel filter. What do I need to try next? The ignition box? It wouldnt crank at all if it was bad. Right?

Have you replaced the pick up coil in the distributor? If not, then I would start there.

but wouldnt it not run at anytime if it was that? Just asking not disagreeing.

It can crank over OK but still have an ign prob that wont let it start as those are seperate circuits and any of those items: coil/ecu/pickup can (& regularly do) act up when hot. If you have a spare dist in your stash (nobody has just one ) plug it in and twirl the shaft by hand (key on) & see if the dist end of the coil to dist wire held 1/4" from ground will spark and do this in seconds after it's good and hot and wont start. Same w a spare ECU, take off the pentastar connector and plug it into a known good ecu and w a jumper wire w alligator clips on each end ground the case & let it hang or sit there and see if it will now start again ASAP when it wont restart when hot. Good luck & holler when you discover something.