Build Thread The Hoopty Chronicles - New House, New garage, New Car?

[liljoe07]

It's easy to check. You can simply pull the coil wire from the cap, stick a spark plug in it. Loosen the distributor, and rotate the distributor back and forth. With the spark plug close to the coil post on the cap, it should spark when the pick up passes by one of the reluctor vanes.

One could assume that since the car runs, the pickup is fine for the most part. But I have read from an article about the design of the TFI, that the TFI is supposed to be able to generate it's own PIP signal should the pickup fail. I have never seen it happen though. Most the ones I have seen were complete loss of spark when they failed. And some had erratic PIP signals.

 

[hoopty5.0]

View: https://youtu.be/U0mld8poR_k

 

[a91what]

Then you should get spark with the spout out with it in the car....

Try that, then see if the MS is missing the tach input

 

[hoopty5.0]

Then you should get spark with the spout out with it in the car....

Try that, then see if the MS is missing the tach input

Well that just means I had the dist stabbed wrong and it was sparking in between pins.

 

[90sickfox]

Let me get this straight...when the timing in ms is fixed at 20...the timing retards independent of what ms reads ? Meaning the mechanical timing goes to zero but ms reads 20 ?

I'm pretty sure I read one of your posts where ms showed the retard in tunerstudio.

On my car when the timing was set mechanically the car ran weird. It started and idled fine but I noticed the timing would move even though it was fixed. I did research and found that if the mechanical timing is set at 0° the computer will freak out.

Once I set mechanical timing to 10° with an offset of 10° with 20° fixed it showed 20° on the balancer and the timing followed 20° through the rpm range.

My timing was all over the place before that....so was my rpm. I don't know if ms was retarding it with rpm because I never checked. Car also had other issues at the time.

In a post earlier I thought I read that you couldn't set base timing....? I know your car won't run with the spout out but neither will mine.

I set base timing by getting the car to start, setting ts to 20° fixed, with +10° offset, then I moved the distributor till it read 20° at the balancer. That meant that the reading in ts matched the mechanical timing.

I also read somewhere that ms can only retard to zero. The mark on your balancer looked to be below zero when rpm is high which led me to believe your mechanical timing is at 0° instead of 10-14°.

I still haven't grasped the whole offset concept. I don't know why I couldn't set mechanical timing at zero and have ms control it from there...but...it doesn't work like that. I also found out that the computer freaks out with any offset below 0°

You're way more experienced than me. Just brain storming for you a lil' bit. I'd love to see that thing running like you want it too.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Yeah I'll be sure to keep the updates coming as soon as I can. May help a lot of other people

 

[tannerc91gt]

all I've learned from this that you are FAR more patient than I

 

[hoopty5.0]

I have no shame.


With that said, I've owned a fox since 2004 and I just learned that you can pull the spout with the car running.

Here's what happened - Stabbed the distributor, turned the key, car runs.

Turn car off, Pull spout, no run. Put spout in, start car... (BIG IDEA) ... pull spout and ........ The car keeps running!

Some of you are probably shaking your heads, laughing, or yelling at the screen in anger. I honestly didn't know and I grew up around chevy guys...

Anyway, base timing is 10 degrees, here's proof:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQWIfp8lqc


I didnt rev it much - Im pretty sure my neighbor hates me and has the police on speed dial. Im also headed out of town for the weekend, so the end of this story is going to have to wait until Sunday.

 

[a91what]

I wonder if we can get rid of the tfi all together......

Remote mount tfi distributor from 95, use the pip signal for the MS, build the driver needed to fire coil from the MS.....

 

[hoopty5.0]

So at the advice I've been following on Corral, I pulled the spout - removing computer control altogether and bumped the base timing to 18 so it would idle normally. Revved the engine and the timing still nose dived. It's the distributor or something around it giving me the grief.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

So at the advice I've been following on Corral, I pulled the spout - removing computer control altogether and bumped the base timing to 18 so it would idle normally. Revved the engine and the timing still nose dived. It's the distributor or something around it giving me the grief.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So at the advice I've been following on Corral, I pulled the spout - removing computer control altogether and bumped the base timing to 18 so it would idle normally. Revved the engine and the timing still nose dived. It's the distributor or something around it giving me the grief.

Well Collin, at least you're narrowing down the problem.

Do you ever feel like when you'll find it you'll think,"oh duh!".

Mind you, i felt like that along time ago about your issue.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Well Collin, at least you're narrowing down the problem.

Do you ever feel like when you'll find it you'll think,"oh duh!".

Mind you, i felt like that along time ago about your issue.

Nah, I'm in uncharted territory. Has this dude on the other site not broken this down into the steps I'm taken, I'd have never figured any of this out. Now, it's like reading a book that you're really into and not knowing what's going to happen on the next page.

It's strange... I always have a mental plan for what I want to do. Now, I'm being led through the dark by the hand of a kind stranger, haha

 

[Boosted92LX]

What's really odd.. my son's car did the EXACT SAME THING with the spark retard. He was running on a stock a9l computer with a gray tfi module. The only way I could make it stop was to pull the aforementioned number 4 tfi wire. Once that was done, no more problem.

Death to tfi ignition!!!!

 

[Chuckman]

You're running an aftermarket (mallory?) distributor right? Ever think about just buying/borrowing a stock known-working unit and using that?

 

[tannerc91gt]

You're running an aftermarket (mallory?) distributor right? Ever think about just buying/borrowing a stock known-working unit and using that?

I thought he did that?


Ever consider putting it all in the trash can and putting those LS coils to work?

 

[hoopty5.0]

I thought he did that?


Ever consider putting it all in the trash can and putting those LS coils to work?

phuckin A mang. That's happening as soon as I get time.

 

[hoopty5.0]

The distributor that just quit replaced one that quit.

 

[Boosted92LX]

The distributor that just quit replaced one that quit.

Three cheers for pip and tfi!!!

 

[Boosted92LX]

I got to watch firsthand a new stock distributor put in that engine have the tfi fail first, then the pip sensor. Granted, not motorcraft stuff, but still.