Ignition Problem?
 

Ok I own a 1984 ford mustang gt...(yeah i know its a pos ford don't bash me to hard) well it's been sitting in the woods for about 5 years now and after putting a intake and carb on it got it running.....thing runs great. Well I decide to drive the thing up and down a few blocks and to see if she still rolls down the road smooth. So I drive it for about 1 mile and then I come to a stop sign and the damn thing kills. I try starting it....no luck.....I check to see if i'm getting fuel yup......but once I get it home I decide to check for spark.....the car starts right up I pull a plug wire off and hook it to a new plug to see if I get spark....didn't look consistent.....it has the ford duraspark (junk) ignition. Could the Ignition module be going bad...I know the are common to go out in ford vehicles.

after sitting in the woods for 5 years, the car should have, at bare minimum:

new distributor cap
new distributor rotor
new plugs
probably new plug wires too


you'll be able to do all these for under $50 (unless you like to buy the really expensive plugs and wires).

in about 2 hours, you can replace all these parts and most likely your ignition problem will be gone.


btw, you didnt say HOW you managed to get the thing home. tow? or did it start eventually.


also, if you ran it long enough for the ignition coil to get hot, it is possible that the coil failed due to heat. sometimes a coil will not work when hot. have it checked (most competent parts store personal do this for you). once you see how to do it with a cold coil, you can try it on your coil when its hot. a hot coil that wont work will have excessively high resistance (which is checked with an ohm meter - if you dont have a DVOM (digital volt ohm meter) get one. it can be one of your best friends).

I agree. The duraspark ignition module is an easy and cheap junk yard score, but they are usually good or bad...rarely intermittent.

Also that list is a good starting point for a five yard old lawn ornament of a 'stang. Ignition coil is also probably getting corroded through out also. Can't hurt to replace that as well.

-bear

I have to agree with Sion. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this fixed your problem and even if it doesnt, its a good idea to do anyway if you plan on driving it at all.

Yup done plug wires......and plugs....I checked the cap and the carbon brush fell apart on me :( So I think that was the big problem.

You're lucky the old gas in the tank didn't cause problems....it might still.

Ok now my problem is the wires for the voltage regulator were really corrode and broke off. So the car was running off the battery only and when I let my foot off the clutch the car would die from using all the power for the damn ignition....Hopefully when I soldered a new connector on I'll be ready to roll!