I thought I would post a follow up on the stalling issue that preceded my replacing the Fuel pump in our Defender 90, since it turns out that it had nothing to do with the fuel pump.... and actually makes me look kind of stupid.

Back Story: Over a period of 6 months or so, my wife complained a couple of times that her D90 would suddenly go dead when driving on the freeway - it would always fire right back up and I could never get the problem to repeat when I was driving. The strange thing was it always happened in the same place, right near Seatac when she was coming to pick me up at the airport - she suspected the Department of Homeland Security was testing some EMP device on her. I scratched my head checked some fuses and wires, but since I couldn't get the problem to repeat, and it had only happened a few times, I figured it was probably a loose wire that had managed to somehow fix itself (ya, right...) A few weeks later she went to fire up the car and it wouldn't start at all - after a process of elimination I realized the fuel pump had gone, and set about dropping the tank and replacing it. At the end of the day, voila the car started up and we were back on the road.

Gremlins Return: Happy with myself, I automatically assumed the stalling were the early signs of the pump failure, until, as a celebration we headed out to the coast for a picnic on the beach - an hour and a half into the drive, the car goes dead. I coast to the side of the road and the car starts right back up on the first go...hmmmm. The problem doesn't occur again for a couple of months, but then on a trip up to Bellingham the same thing happens....hmmm. So now I start putting the pieces together - the stalling only occurs when we have been driving for an hour or more, happens when going up hill or over a bump, and is a complete power loss... I come up with a theory.

Soution: On the way back from Bellingham I wait for the problem to occur again and sure enough about an hour and a half into the drive, the car goes dead - rather than hitting the hazards and coasting to the side of the road, I lightly touch the ignition key and we are back up fully powered...ahhh HAH! All this time, it was just a loose ignition cylinder in the steering column - I guess if we drove long enough the heat from the engine would travel up the steering column causing it to expand just enough that the weight of the keys would be enough to break the connection, which was why I couldn't get the problem to repeat - I wasn't driving the car long enough for the column to get warm. I pulled off the ignition key, put on a chain by itself and we have not had the problem since - though I am going to replace the cylinder.

Postscript: The fuel pump issue was a completely seperate issue that just happened to occur around the same time. There was no doubt that the pump was gone, and I assumed the two issues were related... well you know what they say about assumptions.