So, the Bronco died on me in an adjacent neighborhood. It's stalled like this before, but normally will fire right back up. This time, not so much.
The Bronco has a 302 from an 81 F-150, Painless harness with Painless Duraspark harness. Most of the electrical is from NAPA.
It loses spark suddenly, like the engine has been turned off. This has led me to buy a bunch of ignition switches from NAPA, and that usually fixes the problem. This time it didn't work. I replaced the pickup coil in the distributor, the ballast resistor, the ignition switch, the coil, etc., and it would spark at start up but then die when it moved from "start" to "run." I even put on an old starter solenoid I had, just in case somehow that was causing the gremlin.
I keep a spare ignition module, and I swapped that out, but nothing happened. This afternoon in frustration, I went back to NAPA and bought the two ignition modules they had. I put the nicer "Echlin" module on, it fired right up, then died about a minute later. Got it to fire again, it worked for another minute or so, and then died. I put the cheaper NAPA "proformer" unit on and it fired right up, allowing me to get it in the garage. I wasn't going to push my luck after that.
Have gone through the wire loom, don't see any obvious problems. I checked the NSS just in case that could cause it, but it too is adjusted correctly and the wires are solidly connected.
Is it just these things are this bad, or could there be something wrong with the truck that is cooking them? The last one lasted for about three months, I think, and when it started to die, I was convinced I had carb problems (which is also entirely possible).
Anyone have a better option for where to get the blue grommet modules? Or do I just keep scouring junkyards for an OEM Motorcraft?
Thanks,
Brian
The Bronco has a 302 from an 81 F-150, Painless harness with Painless Duraspark harness. Most of the electrical is from NAPA.
It loses spark suddenly, like the engine has been turned off. This has led me to buy a bunch of ignition switches from NAPA, and that usually fixes the problem. This time it didn't work. I replaced the pickup coil in the distributor, the ballast resistor, the ignition switch, the coil, etc., and it would spark at start up but then die when it moved from "start" to "run." I even put on an old starter solenoid I had, just in case somehow that was causing the gremlin.
I keep a spare ignition module, and I swapped that out, but nothing happened. This afternoon in frustration, I went back to NAPA and bought the two ignition modules they had. I put the nicer "Echlin" module on, it fired right up, then died about a minute later. Got it to fire again, it worked for another minute or so, and then died. I put the cheaper NAPA "proformer" unit on and it fired right up, allowing me to get it in the garage. I wasn't going to push my luck after that.
Have gone through the wire loom, don't see any obvious problems. I checked the NSS just in case that could cause it, but it too is adjusted correctly and the wires are solidly connected.
Is it just these things are this bad, or could there be something wrong with the truck that is cooking them? The last one lasted for about three months, I think, and when it started to die, I was convinced I had carb problems (which is also entirely possible).
Anyone have a better option for where to get the blue grommet modules? Or do I just keep scouring junkyards for an OEM Motorcraft?
Thanks,
Brian