My cobra has been buckling under load the past two weeks and I've tried to solved this problem the past week and I found two things.One two of my spark plug wires were glowing and arcing these are ford racing wires and they are only 7 months old which I'm mad about .Second my coil for some reason is flashing from the sides of the coil between the metal square around the coil when I accelerate the car and I can see flash marks on the coil but the weired thing is that I have two other coils and they do the same thing and I dont think they are supposed to do that one of the those coil is the original one which was good I just upgraded to a MSD one and the other is a friends that we removed from his car to upgrade it but was working fine.So I'm at a lost why these coils are flashing from the sides any ideas?
buckling when under load
- Thread starter fordtech28
- Start date
The flashing from the coil is the electricity from the coil jumping to the nearest ground. Electricity takes the path of least resistance, so it's now harder for the electricity to get to the spark plugs than it is to jump through the air and ground out through the engine block. When was the last time you checked the cap & rotor on the distributor? If the contacts are corroded, that could be your problem.
The coil wire could be the problem as well. See if your buddy will let you borrow his coil wire as a test, and see if the coil is still arching to the bracket. If you want to go this far, borrow his cap, rotor and spark plug wires too.
I don't think this is the issue, but you may want to check the engine block ground. You should have a wire reaching from the driver's motor mount bolt on the block, over to the frame on that side. I'd make sure the connections are tight and aren't corroded.
Do you have any other electrical issues with the Cobra? Any gauge issues, battery dying, etc?
The coil wire could be the problem as well. See if your buddy will let you borrow his coil wire as a test, and see if the coil is still arching to the bracket. If you want to go this far, borrow his cap, rotor and spark plug wires too.
I don't think this is the issue, but you may want to check the engine block ground. You should have a wire reaching from the driver's motor mount bolt on the block, over to the frame on that side. I'd make sure the connections are tight and aren't corroded.
Do you have any other electrical issues with the Cobra? Any gauge issues, battery dying, etc?
I put a extra thick ground cable a couple of months ago just because the old one looked bad everything else on the car works 100 percent except for this problem I changed the wires same result I'm going to double check the gap and change out the cap and rotor since I notice all the contacts were almost black and its has copper tops and the coil contact moves around so hopefully thats it
UPDATE 11/26/07
The problem turned out to be the autolite spark plugs.This is the second set that has given me problems and they are under 6,000 miles used .I replaced them with motorcrafts which have last me more than 10,000 miles and the car was instantly better and my gas mileage got way better I was getting around 13-14 mpg since I put them on I averaged 16-19 mpg with the motorcrafts.I will never put autolite spark plugs in my car again
The problem turned out to be the autolite spark plugs.This is the second set that has given me problems and they are under 6,000 miles used .I replaced them with motorcrafts which have last me more than 10,000 miles and the car was instantly better and my gas mileage got way better I was getting around 13-14 mpg since I put them on I averaged 16-19 mpg with the motorcrafts.I will never put autolite spark plugs in my car again
ASF 42C's Motorcrafts
i was wondering how long are these supposed tp last?
How many miles you guys been getting.
I heard 25,000 miles is bout right.
got 17,000 miles on them now .
no issues.
what can you guys say bout this
As long as they don't break or suffer too much gap erosion, they can last quite awhile. I've run coppers for 50K miles before and I've seen them go over 100K before the gap erosion became so great that a miss developed.
I like to change or atleast inspect them every 30K or so.
This manual calls for 12,000 mile change for plugs and fuel filter!!
Wat can u guys say bout that???
What manual are you reading?
The O.G.
Member
Zero_chance
Founding Member
I had autolite 25s in my 88 for two years before I did a head gasket and intake seal job. Replaced them just because I had the heads off but the ones I took out looked fine. The new 25s lasted another two years till I sold it and who knows how much longer.
BlackVert
15 Year Member
94' Five.0
Founding Member
Ok this sparked my curiosity. Are you saying this could cause these kind of symptoms?
Absolutely. The sampling tube in the MAF presumes the air is flowing evenly through, so it can reliably do the math and know exactly how much air is flowing. The 90 degree bend cause the air to flow unevenly through the MAF, so there is either more or less air flowing in the engine than the computer thinks there is. That'll cause the engine to run rich or lean, depending on how the readings are off.
You can sometimes rotate the MAF in the tube to improve the calculations. If the MAF happens to be in the right spot to get a proper air sample, the car will run right again.
You can sometimes rotate the MAF in the tube to improve the calculations. If the MAF happens to be in the right spot to get a proper air sample, the car will run right again.
hollywoodstang
Active Member
- May 23, 2006
- 1,095
- 2
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Is there special mustang school??? how you guys know all this. 90* pipe will cause air to flow unevenly? even the bend is smooth?
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