Engine 1988 gt crank no start

I am the author of the checklists; I am a old guy and have been fixing cars for 52 years. Out of those 52 years the last 26 of have been with 5.0 Fox fuel injected Mustangs. The checklist were written because of several things.

1.) I have no accurate way to measure your capabilities and knowledge as an automotive technician. You maybe someone who should never be allowed near car with any kind of tool, or you may be a skilled hobbyist that just needs some extra guidance and knowledge.

2.) You may overlook something that is the essential clue towards finding and fixing your problem. The checklist procedure helps to reduce that to a minimum.

3.) I am not there to see, hear, inspect, and test what is happening. That means you are the eyes, ears, mind, and hands that will see, test, and diagnose the problem. I have been fixing these cars via the Internet long enough that I can observe and then shorten the checklist considerably. I don't do that because of reason #1; I have no way of measuring you level of competency and no way of eliminating something important that you overlooked or didn't consider important.

I have read your problem description and I can assure you that the answer is in there. Read the checklist. observe, test, diagnose, and eliminate all the things it can't be. Then what is left is what the malfunctioning component can be. Next think about what they do and how they do it.


Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous quotation: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."

Good troubleshooting takes time. Everyone seems to be looking for the magic tip that says replace this $13 part and your problems are cured. You don't have to think, dig or diagnose, just buy the part and install it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way 99% of the time.

Thinking is hard work and educated thinking requires much more effort than simple parts swapping. The complexity and age of these 5.0 Mustangs works against that, as well as the number of hands that have “modified” the original design. Sometimes that modification is well done with good workmanship and other times it is mechanical road kill. It is very easy to become the victim of the previous owner’s efforts.

I spend a great deal of time trying to communicate the methodology of structured troubleshooting principles. For those who haven’t been beaten with this stick before, here they are again:

1.) Understand the system. That involves reading some books to get an overall picture of how it works. For 5.0 Mustangs, that list starts with the Chilton shop manual and the Probst book, Ford Fuel Injection & Electronic Engine Control 1988-1993 by Charles Probst :ISBN 0-8376-0301-3.
It's about $32-$45 new, a used copy will be about $20+, see http://www.amazon.com. Select books and then select search. Use the full name or SBN number (without dashes or spaces) to do a search. Use the ISBN number and your local library can get you a loaner copy for free for 2 weeks or so.

For free automotive electrical training, see http://www.autoshop101.com/ . I have personally reviewed the material and it is very good.

Another resource is the following website by Tmoss (diagram designer) & Stang&2Birds (website host) for help on 88-95 wiring: http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine. Study the diagrams and tech articles. There is an amazing amount of good stuff in one place for FREE.

2.) Isolate the problem. You need to be able to break the system down into functional blocks or subsystems. Once you know what subsystem has failed, it is much easier to troubleshoot. Group problem symptoms according to what system controls them.
Don’t look for a fix for ignition problems by adjusting the fuel pressure. Have an organized, step by step, approach to work your way through a subsystem before you quit and go off wildly chasing rabbits. You have three tools to use in your efforts: measure, observe and think!. Use these three tools to narrow down the list of possible failure points into a small, easily managed list of items.

3.) Install the fix. Now that you have a short list of suspected villains, plan your repair efforts so that you do the easy things first. If an item from the easy list didn’t fix your problem, then look at the high failure rate items. Spend some time here on Stangnet and you’ll get an idea of what the most commonly replaced parts are, things like TFI modules, ignition switches and fuel pumps.

If you make a change and it doesn’t relieve the problem symptoms, put it back the way it was. I have a stack of parts from where I swapped a part and it didn’t fix the problem. I put the old part back on the car and the new part went on the shelf. Someday I will either use them or trade them for something else.