dagowitha66

Hello,

I am a proud owner of an '88 5.0L convertible. I've had the car for about 4 years, and for the most part has been a great car. However, in the past 2 or so years I've occasionally been running into a mysterious, and highly annoying issue. It goes like this;

I'll be driving along with everything performing as I'd expect. Then out of nowhere, the engine will completely quit on me. When I go to restart, nothing. It just cranks and cranks. The odd thing is that if I wait somewhere between 15-30 minutes, the issue resolves itself and I drive away. Everything will be great for the next 2-3k miles. Then lo and behold, it happens again! It seems to be somewhat more frequent when it's hot outside, but not always. Other than this, the issue is completely random. This is what makes it so damn irritating! I've had a guy tell me that it was likely an ignition issue. I took it to a local shop, but they said that the diagnostics ran clear. Just last week, I had a friend tell me that it could be the fuel pump. At first I blew off this idea, because I've always found a bad fuel pump to be a one-time "bam, your done until you replace it" sort of deal. Not an intermittently occurring thing. But this now has me wondering; could it be an aging fuel pump? What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Jim

mongolchuck

Chances are its the tfi module on your distributer acting up. Very common problem. So common they moved it on the sn95 cars to help keep it cooler.

rmodel65

definitely sounds like the tfi...take it off and get it tested. but do it multiple times and you can even heat it up with a hair dryer to see if you can mimic the problem..if it is the TFI only buy a motorcraft replacement. check www.rockauto.com for one

88 orangepeel notch

Welcome to the forum OP, glad to have you.

I agree with the TFI module being the culprit. Great advice above also. Have yours tested at any Autozone/Advance/etc for free, but have them test it 3 times in a row to build heat in it. That's when they fail.

Good luck

dagowitha66

Thanks to everyone for posting on my thread. I definitely appreciate your input, as this issue has literally caused me a lot of grief (to the point of not even wanting to chance driving to work in my car, in fear that I'll wind up stuck for half an hour in the freeway shoulder lane). I will definitely get this checked out immediately, and will post another reply when I find out if this turned out to be the issue after all.

dagowitha66

Thanks for the info. I definitely agree with trying to stick with OEM / OEM-recommended parts for this. Can't say I have much respect myself for people who put chinese garbage in a nice car just to save a buck.

88 orangepeel notch

You'll also need to pick up one of these to remove the module from the distributor. If you don't want to grind down one of your older sockets.

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/lil-...FQ-oaQod8FYJ3Q

Your local parts store will have them too.

dagowitha66

Just wanted to let everyone know that your suspicions of a bad TFI module proved correct after all. I replaced the module with a new Motorcraft replacement TFI, and it's running great. I also went ahead and advanced my timing from the factory-set 10 deg. to 14 deg, and now it's a powerhouse. Thanks again everybody for your input. This has basically given my car a new lease on life!

dagowitha66

Now it's time to get my '66 289 coupe running good again to keep up with it's younger brother, haha. Will be starting a thread on this soon.

88 orangepeel notch

Glad to hear, and we're happy to help