Hey im the guy that owns the foxbody just wanted to pop in and say the plugs and plug wires are new, and pretty sure the ignition is fine but we’ll check to be sure. cap and rotor seem fine but they arent “new”.
Car idles good, then VERY SUDDENLY dies
- Thread starter Vulpes5.0
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Pull the coil wire off of the coil. Hold it up just high enough from the coil tower to see the wire spark to the coil when idling. (Might want to use some insulated pliers for this lol)
When the engine stops, does the spark stop at exactly the same time, or do you get spark for the few revolutions of the engine as it dies?
If you lose spark immediately, I would suspect a TFI module dropping out. It you get a few sparks to the coil as the engine dies, then you can assume, for the most part, that it is not ignition related.
When the engine stops, does the spark stop at exactly the same time, or do you get spark for the few revolutions of the engine as it dies?
If you lose spark immediately, I would suspect a TFI module dropping out. It you get a few sparks to the coil as the engine dies, then you can assume, for the most part, that it is not ignition related.
I think this might have hit the nail on the head. I put a screwdriver between the plug wire and dizzy cap, once the engine cuts out, no spark whatsoever. The TFI module is pretty new but it’s “standard motor products” and could already be bad. Plus, these kick out pretty often don’t they? The heat cooks them? Could this still be the PIP? Date code on distributor is E4… so out of an 84?
The auto store replacements are known for being bad out of the box and failing. I had three in a row that drove me nuts in a certain [infamous] Taurus SHO but the one on my Fox body has to be uh... 24 years old.
Alright, got a whole distributor on the way from LMR, should get here Wednesday. I’ll update when we get it in there! Really hoping this fixes the issue. This thing is ready to rip
Finally got it all ironed out- we got a distributor from LMR (the $70 cheapy) and we think either it or the TFI that comes installed was bad because it ran for about 5 minutes, we tried to move the teeth on it since it was off one, and needed to shave the TFI for the explorer lower intake, from that point we could never get it to run except for maybe a 1 second fire, and kept flipping it 180 degrees thinking we somehow botched the timing there. Replacement from LMR, and still no dice. Turns out that at the same time, the ignition coil must have given out. tried an old 1987 coil I had and it ran, but wouldn't go past about 4000 RPM without breaking up really bad. Then after the new coil, runs fantastic! Thank you guys for all of the help and ideas. Basically all new ignition fixed it up good, but be wary of cheap parts being bad out of the box.
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