Starting Problem

Ok I have a 1990 Ford Bronco with a 302 v8 EFI. The vehicle refuses to start as of this morning. It was running Friday just fine. The starter turns really well however the engine will not start up. My father and I think that it may not be getting a spark to the plugs. As far as I know the plugs were recently replaced by the previous owner (and they look clean on the outside) but I guess this could warrant taking a look at them.

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I have been thinking about the problem and I was wondering if a bad ignition coil could possibly be causing this problem? If so, is there a way to test for a bad coil???

an easy way to test the coil is to pull the center plug wire off (the spark plug wire that runs from the center peg on the distributor to the coil) and hold it close to the peg. Have someone turn the engine over and see if the spark arcs from the wire to the peg. If it does chances are there is a spark going to the distributor. Might want to check the distributor cap as well. There should be two clasps holding it on, check to make sure the pointer is not worn out and that the contacts are not corroded. definatly sounds like an electrical problem though.

I tested the coil and it seems to be working fine but I have been reading and have found this can be a common problem with TFI Ignition Modules. But to get at that do I have to remove the distributor and if so is it necessary to retime the engine?

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I pulled the ignition module out. I had it tested at AutoZone and they said it was bad. It failed every test except energy leakage. So I bought a new module and now it still refuses to start.

so you do you have spark? If you don't, it can be several things, cps sensor, coil, pcm module. If you remove the cap, no, becuase there is only one way the cap can go on. Just don't remove the dist.

Yeah the TFI modules are crap. If you can find a 95 or 96 ford truck in the junkyard, get their TFI. Its supposed to be re-engineered and seperate from the distributor. It supposedly located on the fender. Ford placed them on the fenders to keep them further away from heat, which was supposedly the cause to faulty TFIs...

Well the problem turned out to be a dead TFI, a bad sending unit on the distributor, and I also replaced the ignition coil. There was a short somewhere in the ignition system and I guess it caused all of these problems to happen at once.

Yeah the TFI modules are crap. If you can find a 95 or 96 ford truck in the junkyard, get their TFI.

Yeah I had read that the TFI system was not one of Ford's greatest ideas. It had a lawsuit filed against it somewhere in California I believe. So i figured that was the only problem guess it wasnt. :uhoh: But I thought that by 95 and 96 Ford got rid of TFI. Although I think the 79 and 78 Broncos did have fender mounted TFI's.