Sorry, another Mustang won't start thread
 

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and new to Mustang maintenance in general. Be kind :)

My 65 won't start. It cranks, but won't start. Unfortunately I had to leave it stand for 3 months (not good I know), and when I came to start it had some difficulty starting. But it did fire up, and ran for 2 or 3 minutes. When I tried to rev it, it cut out. It hasn't started since. That was about 3 months ago now.

I thought maybe the fuel pump was the issue, but I can see gas pumping into the carb when I press the gas pedal.
I replaced the plugs, but no change.
I tried to see if there was a spark by holding a plug wire just off the engine block but saw nothing. Although I'm not entirely convinced I did it right.
The distributor is not the standard points type. I think it is now a Petronix type.
Gas is 7 months old at worst.

Is there anything else I can check or replace?

Regards
CWT

recheck your spark.

Pull the boot off the coil and place a metal object over the top of the coil and to a ground. For example a long wrench that is touching the intake manifold on one end and the the other end just above the the coil.

When you crank the engine over you should see spark jump from the coil to the wrench.

Have you tired starter fluid (carefully) If your gas is full of water, starter fluid sprayed in during cranking should at least fire the engine in a short burst. If there is no life at all with this, then either your electronic pickup is no good, the pickup in the distributor is lose and way out of position, your mechanical advance springs are broken or you are badly out of time. Even badly out of time I would think you would get some firing or back firing. Buy a good timing light to see if you have any spark at all.
If there is spark and you tried starting fluid and there is still no fire, do a compression check.
One other thought, is the choke active?

If it turns over and gets gas then it's spark related. Try starting it with starting fluid or dribbling gas into the carb from a squeeze bottle, that would rule out any fuel delivery/bad gas issue. But from what you described it's lack of spark. Make sure all your grounds are clean/good.

Thanks guys. I'll give these a try as soon as I can get a spare hand to crank the motor.

CWT

I'm back. Tough month.

It seems I definitely have no spark. Nothing at the plugs and nothing from the coil. I have now replaced the coil, and still have nothing. On a side note, I did hook the +ve and -ve cables from the distributor to same the terminal on the coil. Once I corrected that, I did have spark briefly and the car did try and start. It didn't catch, but since then I again have no spark.

I read somewhere the ignition switch could be at fault, so replaced that.
I tried starting fluid just in case.
I have also hooked a wire directly from the +ve battery to the +ve coil terminal, to see if there was any change. Nada.

And I managed to confirm I do have electronic ignition - Pertronix Igniter II

Any other suggestions or ideas?

Thanks
CWT

hi;

remove the positive wire from the coil and run a wire from battery to coil. if no spark, try your coil on another car and vise versa. if no spark, your pertronox is dead and you should install a points distributor plate and leave in there.

also with the key in the run position you should have 9 volts or more on the coil wire. remove it from the coil and test it.

Not a good idea to hold the spark plug wire by hand. Once you do get a spark, it might be a little uncomfortable. Not that you can't take the shock but sometimes the involuntary muscle contraction causes your arm to rip into some sheet metal. A Phillips screw driver can fit into the plug connector and then holding the insulated driver handle hold the driver shaft near a ground.
Many newer electronic ignition systems on new cars warn against this type of test. I don't know about the Pertronix. The problem comes if the wire is directly shorted to the block during a spark event. The lack of gap can cause the output transistor to fail.