Digger86

Only owned the car a week. So heres what happened. Was driving it. It was running fine. Parked it and left to go walk around. Cam back car wouldnt start. was low on gas so i thought i was out. Put gas in it and it still wouldnt start. So checked and had no spark. Put new tfi in it now have spark but still wont start or even try. Even tried with starting fluid still nothing. So could it be the distributor or the pickup coil? Its a 1986 5.0 . Has new msd coil and cap. but still the old distributor. Any advice would be grand thanks in advance.

mattdel

pickup coil probably. fuel pump relay is under the seat, make sure its working too.

Digger86

ok ive got fuel because i can smell it for one. Its just weird that it wont start with starting fluid.

Digger86

ok update now have no spark and weak spark coming out of the coil. Could it be the coil pack?

mattdel

weak spark is usually an indicator of a failing coil, yes.

Digger86

also I have 12 v to both wires on the coil.

mattdel

Well, that shouldn't be. The dark green/yellow wire should be ground, it's also the TFI ground. It originates from pin 4 of the ECM, has a 22k ohm resistor inline, then splices out to both from there. It receives the ground from pins 40 & 60 on the ECM, which are tied directly to the battery negative terminal grounds, which should be block & frame.

Check your main grounds, and check to see if the corresponding pins I've mentioned are grounded or 12v. I'm thinking the end result here is gonna be a dead ECM.

Digger86

I'm testing that with key on. so maybe its back feeding or something and thats with it plugged in.

Digger86

update thanks for the help. my 3 month old coil pack went bad.