starting issues

I literally just left the mechanic 3 hours ago for a similar problem with my Volvo. The word "sometimes" is what is killer - it is hard to diagnose such problems. With these older cars, it can be any number of things. I would recommend taking to a mechanic at this point. Best of luck CarGrrl

Might be the throttle position sensor-when that goes bad the signal that it send to tell the engine management computer how much fuel is needed can be anything down to zero fuel. (this happened to us in the 88 Stanza Wagon FWD) The tip off for a TPS being bad is that usually it doesn't go completely bad all at once, and there is a certain rpm range where the engine does not respond to the position of the gas pedal (the throttle position), but in other positions it may act correctly. So say you're starting up from a stop and get to about 20mph and then the engine seems to not accellerate any more, but if you floor it THEN it will accellerate. Also, sometimes this sensor will become sensitive to heat when its going bad and will do its job properly when the engine is cold but goes wonky or stops working at all when the engine heat up. Another possibility is that it is the cam position sensor going bad. (this happened to us in the same vehicle) That one is located in the bottom of the distributor and if it is failing it also may be sensitive to heat, working when its cool and then not working when the engine heats up. When that one goes completely bad the engine will NOT start and will NOT send a signal to the transistors to spark the coils.

My Stanza had wiring problems under the back seat. Also a bad battery as a result to burning (trying to start my car so many times) which also caused minor starter issues. Make sure fluids are always topped off!