The Walden Effect: Homesteading Year 5. Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Homestead Blog

Innovations:

Homesteading Tags

Recent Comments



Blog Archive

User Pages

Login

About Us

Submission guidelines

Store

intermittent ignition coil trouble

Festiva ignition coil FordToday was very wet. Constant rain is just what I needed to troubleshoot the intermittent electrical trouble on the 1990 Ford Festiva.

Luckily today was moist enough to provoke the problem, which is the engine turning over but not starting, or when it does start it sometimes stalls.

It seems like I fixed it by unplugging the main distributor wire from the ignition coil and firmly re-seating it back into place. I drove it all afternoon in the pouring rain with no other problems. I think I may add a bead of silicone to the connector cover to decrease the chance of any more moisture getting inside. The real test will be to see if the problem doesn't pop up again next week or next month.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


RSS
coil
You might want to replace that coil wire. A bad wire will in damp weather or at night have electricity dancing on its outside.
Comment by Errol — Wed Feb 18 20:40:25 2009
comment 2
We went out and checked it at night when we were trying to diagnose the problem --- no sparks. Of course, that was during dry weather when we couldn't get any symptoms either....
Comment by anna — Thu Feb 19 14:25:39 2009
Add a comment

One very unique homestead, $1,500 per acre, the opportunity of a lifetime