85f-bird

Yeh, well, she's dead....again....here's the jist.

Yesterday i was trying to hunt down my car gremlins, and somehow i came to this conclusion that my cap/rotor combo was bad, so, i slapped on another cap/rotor combo, and guess what....car starts, and runs, problems appear to be gone. So, after i finish buttoning up the 4th gen dash last night, i took the car for a drive to the gas station, filled up the tank, and drove home. Today, i drove the car to my g/f's house, picked her up, brought her to my place, then we took the mustang for the rest of the day. Tonight, i think i'll go and drive the car to my grandmother's (longer drive) to make sure things are working good still, well, thank *** i iddn't get far (only about a block) when i noticed the engine hesitation, it'd start to rev, then would fall on it's face, then attempt to rev again. Hmmmmmm, so i turned around, put it in the garage, and once again took the other car to my grandmothers. Well, then tonight, i start it in the garage to let it run for a bit, runs for 2-3 minutes, then stumbles, and dies...won't restart, i let it wait for a while. Then , start it again , applying gas this time (FLOORED!!!) car comes to life, i continue to give it gas , keeping the RPM's up pretty good (3ish range) and then i let it idle, car cuts out, then comes back, then finally dies again. That's the last on it. Now, i had a hesitation issue once b4, it was a pickup coil, however it wasn't nearly as bad as this hesitation right now, and the car would still start and run, just had a jumpy hesitation that scared the crap outta me. So, think that problem came back? Or something else?

I can imagine a TPS problem, but i don't think it'd affect starting so much as running.

Had a huge wiff of gasoline after trying to start the girl, so i'm assuming it's still getting fuel.

I have to guess it's still electricla, i checked all wires the coil and distributor trying to find a loose connection w/ no luck today, after and b4 i was doing the dying. So, i'm guessing it's actually something electrical cutting out, which is still leading me to distributor. Give me some imput. Thanks in advance.

FbodTrek

Had a similar problem when my PROM committed suicide, but I doubt that's your problem. My guess would be PU coil (module). I dunno, I'd have to see it.

85f-bird

have a thought in the back of my mind about the ecm going crap side up, pucoil is definately on the list...and the ignition module checked good at advanced auto, ran the test three times hoping for it to fail.

92RSSlowmaro

A TPS is not the source of your problems.

Even if the TPS is bad, the ECM can compensate using other variables such as engine RPMs. Throttle response will become very sluggish, but the symptoms you described shouldnt occur. AKA, the car dying.

85f-bird

that was the thought i was having, the vast majority of sensors won't stop the car from starting, it might not run the best, soemtimes they may stall out etc, however, a no-start situation has to be based on something else, aka...spark. thats where i'm leaning, just gotta find where i'm losing it at.

85f-bird

round and round we go....Get this, apparently putting a new cap/rotor combo had nothing to do wth the problem, infact, the true reason the car worked was because i let it sit overnight. After it wouldn't start yesterday, i decided to quit on it, and see about today, so, i go downstairs, turn the key, and bang. workin car again. I let the girl idle for about eh, 20 minutes, and all's good, take her around the block, and besides not having much power, she's running fine, bring her back home, and let her idle a bit longer, then shut her off. Everything seems as good as it did the other day, sooooooooooooooooo...........here's my Q. Before i go and tear out the distributor for the PU-Coil, what's the odds that my stupid ignition module will crap out everyonce in a while, or....crap out when cold. If that'd be the case, get this, it'd make perfect sense that when i took it in and test it, it tested good. But then, if i bring it in when the cars not running, it might test bad? give me some feedback.

Ninetails

my 89' did the same thing for awhile.. the starter was showing signs that it was going, one day it stuck, unhooked the batt knocked the crap out of the starter and it was fine, but the car wouldnt start again... i wasnt untill i changed all plugs/ plug wires, cap and rotor. she started right up had to set the timeing, and now she needs a new control modual, shows the same signs you described, the car dieing out and what not.. someone once told me that the ICM test sould be done atleast 5-6 times to get it to operating temp to see if it fails....