kuntryboybob

hey, just bought a 1989 model gt about two weeks ago. little back ground info is the fuel pump had went out and the guy just mounted one outside the tank. Well the car doesn't want to idle right it just surges for a min or so and then shuts off. Going down the road its fine. he told me the motor has been built to a 306. well today i spray the car off with water hose just outside not motor, get in it and turn on the wipers and everything just starts going crazy. the tach goes down, the temp hand starts going up and down then just pegs out. the volt gauge stops working. and the wipers quit. also when you turn on the headlights all the dash lights comes on and the turn signals stay lite up. You can turn them off and on and it does something different each time. like a short. then this after noon i was just cutting them off and on trying to see if it would do something else and with the key out of the ignition i cut the headlights on and the fuel pump started up then shut off like it is supose to. as you can tell i dont know much about cars or i would have known to stay away from this one i guess. i know i have jumped around a lot, but im not sure if i have one common thing that is causing this or i have a few problems. i will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability if there is any more info that would be helpful to you. this is all kind of over whelming to me to be happening at once.

Once i got home i took apart the dash and removed the headlight switch, hazard light switch and wiper controls, undone them one at a time to try and isolate the problem but still done it with each one out of the circuit at a time. thanks for your patience and time.

jpirate

It's kind of hard to diagnose without having the car right in front of me,it would be helpful to get a ford electrical manual for this car,then look at the section where it diagrams all the grounds.I think you will find that you have a bad/loose/dirty ground connection.I know there are a couple on the left fender apron that are very critical.Take them off,make sure there is no paint or dirt or grease between the terminals and the fender metal,should be clean bare metal.Check the ground wire from engine to frame and the one from the body to frame.Poor grounds can cause all kinds of gremlins. jim

kuntryboybob

thanks for the post i will check it out. today i put the interior back together and drove it down the road, hit a bump and the dash lights went out. So what your saying sounds like a good place to start. thanks alot.

kuntryboybob

just wanted to say thanks again. i bought a repair manual like you suggested and found a ground loose yesterday. fixed it and have drove the car 3 times since and no more problems with dash lights or wipers. So hopefully that was it.