Ignition Problems, Part 2

[Bebop Man]

After the events of last weekend (not starting, coils burning out), I took it into a local shop, and they had it for a week. They also toasted one of their coils, then started tearing stuff apart. They found that there was a couple wires that had melted and were rubbing up against the engine block. Replaced them, and everything seemed to work ok.

My dad picked it up from the shop last night and started to drive home. It stalled again. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

This morning, we went to go get it, and it fired right up. Drove it to the gas station, then out to our shop.

I got out to open up the shop door, it died while idling. I pushed it in, then went to pull codes and test the coil. While I was researching that (it took about an hour or so) I went to roll it again, this time it fired up. It ran for 3 minutes, then died, and wouldn't start again. No spark from the coil.

After letting it sit for another hour, I tried it again, and it ran for another 3 minutes before dying. Again, afterwards, no spark from the coil.

Again, I'm left scratching my head.

 

[rossellini]

are you sure it's not the fuel pump sensor? if your tossin in coils left and right and it's not doin nothin try a fuel pump sensor it's a $20 dollar part and reasonably easy to put in i had the same problem a while back it would idle for a while and then die but the idling was shifty it would idle up then down then up then down to nothin at all

 

[Bebop Man]

Well, when it idles, it idles smooth. And when it doesn't, I don't get ANY spark off the coil at all. I can't imgaine a sensor failure causing that symptom. I could be wrong though.. Hmm...

 

[BroncoJoe19]

Well, when it idles, it idles smooth. And when it doesn't, I don't get ANY spark off the coil at all. I can't imgaine a sensor failure causing that symptom. I could be wrong though.. Hmm...

That sounds like what SEabronc has described as a classical sign of a bad pick up coil inside the distributor. When it heats up, it acts as if someone reached over your shoulder and turned the key off. WHen it cools down, it will start right up, only to stop when it heats up.

If I recall yuo replaced it earlier, perhaps it was faulty, or the shorting wires toasted it.

Did you get any codes this time?

joe

 

[muddinlate86]

i just found out that my pick up coil in my dis.is bad and thats why my truck is running crappy,but it doesnt cut off at all just putters going down the road and gets like 3 miles to the gallon

 

[Bebop Man]

I had already replace the pickup coil in the earlier stages of this, but I couldn't think of anything else, so I drop in another one this morning

Before I did so, I started up the Bronco, and let it idle. It ran for 45 mins before dying

I swapped in a new pickup, and replaced the cap and rotor as well.

it idled nicely for a couple hours, even when I bliped the throttle and wrapped it up. Took it out on the highway, and it still ran like a champ.

Looks promising. But, my confidence in it is shaken. I'm already looking in the papers for a replacement daily driver

 

[BroncoJoe19]

Yahoo!!!

I'm thinking that you will be able to use those papers for kindling at your next campfire /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

If that short in the wiring harness was significant enough to toast your coils, I imagine that it, or the shorting coils could have toasted your pickup coil. Now that the shorted wires were repaired, you should be good to go.

Fingers crossed for ya,

joe

 

[Bebop Man]

Yahoo!!!I'm thinking that you will be able to use those papers for kindling at your next campfire /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

If that short in the wiring harness was significant enough to toast your coils, I imagine that it, or the shorting coils could have toasted your pickup coil. Now that the shorted wires were repaired, you should be good to go.

Fingers crossed for ya,

joe

That's what I hate about solid-state electrical components. There's rarely anything that obviously breaks, so there's nothing to pint your finger to and say "that's broken". So when you replace it, there's still that doubt, "did I really get it fixed?"