My son has a 1977 F150 with a 351 Cleveland. it intermittently keeps dyeing. He will be driving down the road and it just quits, it will start right back up but it keeps dying. some times it will stop 3 times in a mile, other times it will run for days and not quit. Any ideas?
Ok the ribbed aluminum box on the drivers side fender well. i'v never had a car with one. my first maverick had the points and my 75 i took all the old ignition out and put in a MSD. never had to deal with one befor
Not to be a know it all, but if that's the stock engine it's a 351M (for modified). The bolt patterns are totally different! The 351C has a smallblock bolt pattern. The "M" series has the same bolt pattern as the 429 and 460. This has no bearing on your problem, but it sure will when you go to get a trans and other parts! I also agree with everyone on the module being bad! Quick test: take a test light and friend with you. When the truck dies, check to see that you have power at the coil "+" terminal, while cranking the engine. Now switch the test light to the coil "-" terminal and the light should flash on and off while cranking the engine. If the + terminal looses power, you have a bad ignition switch or fault in the wiring. If the light doesn't flash on the "-" terminal, more than likely it's the module! I've seen the pickup coil (in the distributor) go bad, but if it does the truck will not start again. My bet is on the module! I have used many of them for rifle targets!
Ford made several different versions of Duraspark boxes, all of which are distinguished by their colour-coded plastic "grommet" where the wires go into the bottom of the box/module. Match the colour up and you should be fine. I used to keep a spare in the trunk of my 77.
The best way to tell if it's a 351M is if you can answer yes to these questions. 1. Does it get horrible gas mileage? 2. Does it have really poor performance? At least that's been my experience.
Although not a Ford product, I had a 1990 Jeep Cherokee that gave me the same fits. Changed the ignition, ignition switch near the bottom of the steering column and then eventually the ignition switch relay - turned out to be the latter...
No relay on the 77 Ford. It wouldn't have been a bad idea! I've also seen many Ford ignition switches go bad! I'll blame part of this on the owners. Folks just leave everything turned on (ac, radio, wipers, etc) and just turn the ignition off. Then they'll start the car again with everything on. The arcs that that causes fry the contacts, then they make poor connections, then heat! We all know the rest!
