Hilarious!

99FiveOh · Mar 8, 2009

My car didn't start for me earlier this evening, so I started checking the normal things. Narrowed it down to spark and I'm like "Jeeze, here we go with the dizzy problems already!".

So I figured I'd test the coil circuits to see if the coil's getting power and it's pulsing. Sure enough, it's pulsing away nicely. Now, I have my wife out here turning the key for me each time I need to test something. So after I put the plug back on the coil, I figure one more test is in order.

As soon as she bumped the key it sounded like a damn cannon went off! Scared the bejesus out of her!! So I tell her to jump in and try it again cause I know it'll start this time, she runs away from the car while I'm laughing my butt off. So I get in and she's observing from a safe distance. It started right up and settled into a nice idle.

I was smiling ear to ear cause I'm glad I didn't blow my engine! She runs up and is hitting me cause I'm laughing at her, it really freaked her out. I've never heard a Mustang back fire like that, anyone else have that happen before? I figure I loaded it up with gas when it wouldn't start and it fired just right when she tried to start it. Anyway, it was hilarious and I thought I'd share.

HISSIN50 · Mar 8, 2009

I've done that on carbed sport bikes. When the tail pipe is next to the closed metal garage door and the sound reverb's off that at 3 am, you dont even smell your dirty shorts for a few seconds.

So what was wrong with the stang?

99FiveOh · Mar 8, 2009

dunno, plugged the coil connector back in and that's when it backfired then started right up. guess it was a bad connection with the coil.

HISSIN50 · Mar 8, 2009

It could have been. The wires on the coil connector have been known to back out. When you backprobe it with a test light, it passes, but the circuit isnt completed inside the coil itself.

You might wiggle test yours with the car running (be careful of moving and hot parts). Repair the terminal in the coil connector if necessary.

That connector and the wires tend to bake and get brittle. I'm waiting for the plastic retention tab on my connector to snap everytime I disconnect it.

99FiveOh · Mar 9, 2009

The tab is already broken on mine, but those plugs tend to go in pretty tight usually.

I connected the test light to the POS side of the battery and probed both terminals on the plug. One went out when she started cranking, the other one was pulsing as the car was turning over. I knew that was what I was looking for so I ruled out the dizzy being bad. The coil looks really old. A new one is like 15 bucks, so that'll be my next purchase.

XxFaceYourFear · Mar 9, 2009

When I read you were checking for spark I thought you were going to say you gave yourself a good jolt like I have in the past.

Ah, the memories.

HISSIN50 said:
It could have been. The wires on the coil connector have been known to back out. When you backprobe it with a test light, it passes, but the circuit isnt completed inside the coil itself.

You might wiggle test yours with the car running (be careful of moving and hot parts). Repair the terminal in the coil connector if necessary.

That connector and the wires tend to bake and get brittle. I'm waiting for the plastic retention tab on my connector to snap everytime I disconnect it.

Mine broke a while ago so I checked Oreilly's and lo and behold, they carry them. Although I did have to drive a good distance to get the nearest one, it was an exact stock replacement.

I didn't think they carried pigtail connectors like that, so you might want to give em a shout before yours goes.

99FiveOh · Mar 9, 2009

It's definately a part that's being manufactured since all of the aftermarket ignition companies have to get them from somewhere! My MSD harness I bought a while back came with one.

HISSIN50 · Mar 10, 2009

XxFaceYourFear said:
Mine broke a while ago so I checked Oreilly's and lo and behold, they carry them. Although I did have to drive a good distance to get the nearest one, it was an exact stock replacement.

I didn't think they carried pigtail connectors like that, so you might want to give em a shout before yours goes.

Nice tip.

I'll have to check them out. I'm hinky about cutting and splicing those wires but when it gets really bad, it's nice to have the right part.

Chern_889 · Mar 10, 2009

XxFaceYourFear said:
When I read you were checking for spark I thought you were going to say you gave yourself a good jolt like I have in the past.

Ah, the memories.

Mine broke a while ago so I checked Oreilly's and lo and behold, they carry them. Although I did have to drive a good distance to get the nearest one, it was an exact stock replacement.

I didn't think they carried pigtail connectors like that, so you might want to give em a shout before yours goes.

Ive shocked myself pretty good in the past, you learn real quick what to grab and whatnot to grab

99FiveOh · Mar 10, 2009

Ok, today I was driving the car and pulled up to a red light and the car stalled. turned over but wouldn't start. Pushed it off to the side of the road and pulled out my handy dandy test light. I hooked it up to the coil wire again and turned the motor over but this time it wasn't pulsing.

Finally after 5 minutes of fiddling with it I got it started again, I dropped the hood and hauled butt to the nearest auto parts store. I went ahead and bought a PIP sensor and will be installing it tomarrow. Even if it's not the problem I'm sure it'll go out soon, the car has 145K on the clock and it appears to have the original PIP sensor still installed.

99FiveOh · Mar 11, 2009

I just got through changing the PIP sensor and everything seems to be running smooth! I let it idle for a long time, took it for a few drives, idle some more. Turned it off and started it a few times in between, started up everytime with no issues.

Of course you can't do anything on these cars without something else messing up, after starting it back up I notice water gushing out from my water pump area. Thought it was the weep hole, but turns out it's just a gasket. Have to replace it tomarrow.

While I had the dizzy apart I decided to do a quick polish on the housing and resurface the bearing surfaces. You could hear the shaft grinding as you turned it (sick minds stop now!!) So I used emery cloth to smooth out the surface of the shaft and then polished it to a shine. Now the shaft spins like butter.

Here's a couple pics for ya's:

Hilarious!

99FiveOh

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

99FiveOh

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

99FiveOh

XxFaceYourFear

99FiveOh

HISSIN50

"How long does it take to get help in here?

Chern_889

New Member

99FiveOh

99FiveOh

Similar threads

Hilarious!

"How long does it take to get help in here?

"How long does it take to get help in here?

"How long does it take to get help in here?

New Member

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency