mjr46

does the car have an aftermarket alarm??

SWGSSSlacker

Yes it does, Viper. I bought it because it will alarm the keypad if someone messes with it.
It also has a kill switch that kills power to the fuel pump relay.

mjr46

I'd make sure that the alarm is not messing with the ability to start the car

SWGSSSlacker

How do I know if I have a bad IAC valve or bad IAC valve connector?
The car will die when I turn the A/C on...not right away but it will eventually.
I think something is amiss with its operation, possible what makes it unable to
completely EEC test due to it not raising engine RPMS.

SWGSSSlacker

Ok, I'm pin pointing things and I might finally be homing in on my solution.

I have a stored code 18 in my cars brain "loss of TACH signal to Electronic Control Assembly" (ECA). I have found this post http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-foru...990-lx.820644/ and checked into some things.

I pretty sure the computer side of the spout connector is the side of the spout that comes from the wiring harness and not the side that the distributor is attached to. So, I checked the computer side of the spout connector with ECU pin # 38 and found no resistance with the distributor plug connected. I checked ECU pin #38 with the body ground near the ECU location and got 3.85k ohms. According to the website I entered above the resistance should be below 2 ohms and I'm reading 3.85k... Doh!

Back at the spout connector.... if I check the other side of the spout connector (distributor side) with ECU pin #38 with the distributor plug plugged in I get 9.5k ohms and with the distributor unplugged I get ZERO ohms.

I don't know what to do at this point but it does appear I have a wiring issue.

Looking for help in Texas.

SWGSSSlacker

Disregard my last post!

The correct ECU pin # is 36 for cross checking ohms across the spout circuit. I took the connector cover off of the ECU plug and looked at the wiring, the wire leaving ECU pin # 38 was not the same color as the spout wiring. So I continued looking and found the correct wire at pin #36. I tried the same tests as above and found significantly different numbers.

Spout to ECU pin #36 is .8 ohms and the ECU pin #36 to body ground is zero ohms. So I'm back at square one for the out of the blue engine dieing. Apparently wiring harness wise I'm good to go but I don't know what else I could replace, everything is new now.

So annoying!

mjr46

have you replaced the stator/pick up in the distributor?? = common cause for dying out of the blue

SWGSSSlacker

The spout connector does advance the timing when it is plugged in I'd like to think the ECU is doing what it is supposed to do.

I'm trying to contact my alarm installer to find out what needs to be done to take it out of the equation. I know I can just snip the power wire to the alarm box but I don't know if that will kill it entirely.

SWGSSSlacker

I bought a completely new distributor that had all new parts in/on it. I did replace the ICM that came with the distributor with a FOMOCO unit but the PiP sensor is the one that came inside the distributor.

The issue I'm having was happening before I replaced the distributor to begin with so it's had two PiP sensors in it recently.
I thought the issue I was having was ICM or PiP related so instead of buying the two to replace I bought a whole new distributor instead.

SWGSSSlacker

I've even insulated/wrapped my distributor and the thermostat housing to try and remove a heat issue from the equation. It did not help!