89 5.0 stalls at idle and at speed

[hotrodtech]

Hello all. My 89 5.0 notchback has been stalling at idle and at speed. As soon as I start it up it cuts right off. I let it run a bit, put it in gear and it stalls. Restart it drive it to the stop sign and it stalls again. As I'm driving down the highway it stalls, cuts right back on and stalls again. It stalls like the key was turned off, radio goes out, I hear clicking and then it cuts right back on. Before it would do it until it warmed up and it would stop. But now its worse and it continues regardless of the car temperature. I was going to buy a code reader but I heard that they are hit and miss and pretty much a waste of money. I love the car but it is driving me nuts.

[Ericdano]

My 89 5.0 LX had this problem. In fact, it died yesterday. It is at the shop, so, hopefully we'll know exactly what died.

In fact, there was smoke as well........something burnt out. Completely won't start now. I suspect the ignition switch......

[fordtrucksonly]

Had a 2.3L TDI Ranger do that to me about 2 months ago, Indeed it ended up being an Ignition switch.