so my car wont run and i don't have any idea whats up. let me explain what happend. so i thought some thing was wrong with my duraspark set up. so i replaced the control modual, stator, and the coil trying to get it to run. it wasn't working so i towed my car home and got it running at home. i took it to my dad today to get the inspections and emmisions test done on it. we ran it in training mode first time to make sure it would pass. passed with flying colors. when we were running it for real it decided to die 15 seconds before the test was done. it just died and wouldn't restart. it did this before about a month ago. the thing i don't understand is that it was running really good. i even had my idol set at about 800-900 rpms. the weird thing is that i could get it to start when the starter was still turning and then when you turn off the starter it would die. it was doing that. then we were dinking with it and it started up for a few seconds and then died again. then after that it would even start with the starter on. it is getting spark we tested that so i don't think that it's any were in the ignition system, and yes it does have fuel. pulled on the excelerator pump and squirts right into the engine. i know it's not the carb i had it rebuilt by my dad who has been rebuilding carbs for years. he knows what he's doing. the thing that really bugs me is that it was runnig really well and then just died out of now were. oh ya i should tell you that it's a 75 351w out of a ford granada in my 73 comet. any ideas would be really helpfull. this car is my every day driver and it's been out of commision too long.
If it tries to run while in start mode, it sounds like it may be the wire powering the coil or ignition box. You might try putting a jumper wire directly from the battery to the red wire of the box and/or to the + on the coil and see if it will run. If it does run with the jumper or jumpers, you will have to remove the jumper to get it to die. Then check the wire to and from the ignition switch for loose connections or the switch itself. Are you using the original wire to the + on the coil to also power the red wire to the box? The original wire has resistense and the box needs full battery voltage.
This may sound rudimentary but have you checked to see if you are getting spark FROM the coil? Take the coil wire out of the distributor and hold it close to a ground (engine block) and crank the engine to see if there is spark? If there's spark FROM your coil, then test each plug to see if it's firing by doing the same (grounding the plug to the block while turning the engine over - with the coil wire plugged in of course). If it's intermittant, then I'd lean towards RegL404's diagnosis. I found the 35 year old wiring to be less than perfect in mine when doing the electrical work. you mentioned, "it wasn't working so i towed my car home and got it running at home". What did you to then to get it going?
yeah i'm getting really good spark from the coil. i pulled off the cap and it was jumping from the center of the cap to the plugs spots inside the cap. i didn't check all the plugs for spark that might be a good idea. but the one i did check was getting really good spark so i figured that they were all getting good spark. i don't know what i did to get it to run before. i had a bunch of stuff diconeted so i hooked every thing back up and it started to run. so i figured it was a combination of things not working correctly. like one of the items i replaced and i was thinking a bad connection some were. yeah i'm a bit confused on this. my dads confused on this too and he's been working proffesionaly on stuff like this for over 20 years. we even asked a guy at his work who has done ford stuff longer than my dad and he's confused about it.
Sounds like you might have an intermittent open in the ignition wire that come from the switch and goes to the coil. This wire is bypassed in crank mode (usually), and then supplies the resisted amount of voltage to the coil.
Had the same problem on my 302 before my engine change. Module would even test good at AZ, but a change to a new one cured it. Good luck.
I forgot about that. There is one wire (I forget which one) that drops in voltage during cranking. If you have that wire hooked into the ECM, then it's not seeing enough volts. You could put a meter on a few 'key' wires and check the voltage during cranking to determine which wire that one is and make sure it's not your main voltage supply to your box. Good luck.
well i think that we got it figured out. me and my dad think that i had a major case of vapor lock down at the fuel pump. he went out today to see if it was still doing what it was doing and started cranking on it. it wasn't starting so he started hitting the gas pedal because he was getting frustrated with it. and sure enouph the thing started right up. so it's time to do some thing to sheild the fuel pump and the fuel lines from the headers.
Are you sure your gas tank is venting properly? I almost wonder if it didn't build up a vaccum in the tank or something.
when i had my dodge charger it did this to me once... i know that our cars dont have a ballast resistor... but is there anyhting that would casue the car to run in the start position and then turn off when release the key? anything that acts like a ballast maybe?
stmanser - the ignition switch would do this, also ignition wiring. fords have 2 power circuits to the ignition. one functions in the run position & the other functions during starting. if there is a supply problem in the run position (bad switch, bad wire, etc) then car will only run while being started. when u let go the key, the car will die.
I wonder if we could document which wire does the dropping of voltage while we're on the subject? That exact thing happened to me - only my fuel pump relay switch was wired into that wire (coming out of the junction on the firewall). Same thing - I'd let the fp build up before cranking. The car would run a second or two then cut off. It finally took me actually holding on to the (electric) fuel pump mounted at the sump of the fuel tank (to determine if it was "On" during cranking) to find this out. Very difficult to find that out without another person helping. I can't remember which wire it was now (because we switched from it to a different source). So, can anyone identify this wire (Color? Location? Pin #?, Other)? It could save someone a huge headache and LOTS of time in the future.
Stmanser, Fords do not have a ballast resistor, they have a resistor wire. It performs the same function, albeit much tougher to fix if there is a problem. Ford, in their infinite wisdom, chose to put the resisted part under the dash.
