Ignition Switch problem

68keyblr · Jul 1, 2006

Here's the gig:

My '88 has been sitting for almost a year since my wife tried to drive it into our living room...

So I got a new battery and started the long process of sorting out all the problems to get it running again.

Just put in a new fuel pump today, and now I can get the engine to fire.

The problem is that as soon as the ignition switch rotates back after starting, everything turns off. I found that if I do not let the ignition switch return all the way after starting, the engine will keep running. The ignition switch was replaced shortly before the "accident."

So is the whole switch bad or is something out of adjustment that I can adjust?

jrichker, feel free to jump in here

BadAndy · Jul 2, 2006

I have seen this along time ago, i [think ?] its the solnoid

jrichker · Jul 2, 2006

Sounds like the ignition switch is either bad or out of
adjustment. The start circuit of the ignition switch has a
wire that goes to the TFI to provide power when starting.
Notice the two wires with arrows on them on the TFI
module in the attached diagram. A test light could be used
to confirm the power in the crank postion and no power in
the run postion.

See the following website for some help from Tmoss (diagram designer) & Stang&2Birds (website host) for help on 88-95 wiring http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/

Diagram courtesy of Tmoss & Stang&2birds

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/IgnitionSwitchWiring.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/fuel-alt-links-ign-ac.gif

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/88-91_5.0_EEC_Wiring_Diagram.gif

68keyblr · Jul 2, 2006

Thanks for the input Gents - turned out to be a bad ignition switch. It came apart in my hand when I opened up the column to look at it.

Zero_chance · Jul 3, 2006

Just out of sheer curiosity, how exactly did your wife drive into the living room?

68keyblr · Jul 3, 2006

Zero_chance said:
Just out of sheer curiosity, how exactly did your wife drive into the living room?

LOL it's a funny story.

The '88 was acting up and I barely got it home and parked it out in front of the house. When I went to see if I could start it the next day, it wouldn't start. I tried to push it up the driveway into the garage but the driveway is just too steep. So I got this brilliant idea to push it up into the garage using our Van with a pad between the front bumper of the van and the rear bumper of the stang.

Here's the stupidest thing of all - I put the car in 1st and told her to just hold the clutch in and the car would roll, thinking that she could just let up off the clutch when the car was stopped and in position in the garage and the car wouldn't roll.

So I start pushing her with the van. We get about half way up the drive way and I feel the Stang start to buck...before I knew it I had push started the Stang! My wife panicked and mashed the gas instead of the brake and then I watched in slow motion as the Stang careened at full throttle towards the back wall of the garage. Luckily there was an old empty chest and some blankets there that absorbed alot of the impact, so she didn't go through the wall. The Stang was fishtailing back and forth with the rear tires smoking until the engine died from lack of fuel (Thank God for the inertia switch!!).

So by this time I had jumped out of the Van and ran to the driver's door. My wife was of course in shock so I told her that her career in NASCAR was definately over now!

After she calmed down I asked her what happened. She said after the car was rolling she thought it would be alright if she let off the clutch LOL

It's the oddest site to see skid marks going straight up the driveway and INTO the garage!

So that's the story. It was of course all my fault and I am now nominated for "Idiot fo the Year" LOL.

My poor wife won't sit in the driver's seat every again!!

I just got it running this morning after sitting for 8 months. We took a quick cruise around the neighborhood and she was diggin' it so all was not lost

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