This is my daily driver and it's being a pain. 1990 Mustang 4 cyl, in the past few months if it has rained the car won't start, until the rain stops and things seem to dry out. Also, it's done it a few times when there was dew out.

The distributor cap is new, and I just put some Vaseline around the bottom of the cap where it hooks to the dist just to provide a better seal from moisture.

I just bought new plug wires and put them on, but no luck. It's been clear outside for about 12 hrs at least, so it should have started by now.

Anyone have any ideas? should I try buying a coil?

 

have you tried trouble shooting anything? any results, eliminated anything besides the fact that you replaced the cap and wires a while back

 

Cap, rotor, ignition coil, cracked plug insulators, failing plug wires, failure of the remote ignition amplifier (still on the inner fender of a '90?), failing Hall-effect pickup in the distributor base, any connections, and those are only if you are lacking ignition.

You could try a heat gun or hair dryer to warm up components one at a time to see what makes any difference.

BTW - I didn't think we allowed Dorf owners to moderate the boards...

 

Not that we don't all have confidence in your ability to get FOUR PLUG WIRES correctly installed, but; did you mess up the firing order?

 

lol, I did them one at a time. Hour after I posted this thread it started right up, so we'll see.

Yes, Vader the coil in on the driver side fender, it did have a casing over it, which I slightly broke

 

I wasn't asking so much about the ignition coil as the die-cast aluminum ignition amplifier box (a sore piece of engineering on most Fjords). They are prone to inexplicably flakey behavior any time voltage is applied.

 

Have you tried selling it? Or givng it away?

 

Sorry... tried starting fluid?

 

since it restarted so easily i'd heat up the ignition box on the inner fender with heat gun and see if you can make it fail.

 

hey nothing wrong with that as a daily driver.

 

I dont know dude.....the very name makes me wanna throw up..

Ford=
Found on road dead
Driver returns on foot~~~~>spelled backwards (duh)
Fuc*ing obsene road device
Fuc*edup on race day

"Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
Thank *** Ford is around
or else my tools would rust"



had more...just cant think of them

 

well, it had been sitting for like 2 days, so I doubt it's heat, my guess somthing is getting wet. It snowed today, and it started fine, the true test will be when it rains Iguess.

And, I happen to lke Mustangs, 3rd one now, this one is great on gas 30mpg, but slow as *****.

 

Well that was helpfull wasn't it???

This is one of Fords bad spots....they are as bad a a chrysler sometimes is the rain. i agree with Vader here, those amplifiers can be a pain. Check if there are any obvious places that you can see where water has splashed up...may help you see what is getting so wet to cause it not to run. HTH

Keiran

 

FORD
F= For
O=Only
R= Retarded
d= Drivers

Glad i could help!
Love trans ams

1988 trans am TBI 305

 

FORD=fu*ked over road debris