My '97 Taurus won't start.. Please help!

[teh_balzaK]

I have a '97 Ford Tuarus GL. One day, the car wouldn't start. It cranked and everything, but never started. Finally I gave up and left it, then later that day I tried again. It started! Then it was fine for a few weeks, until the other day it did the same thing. Except this time it didn't start for 3 days... So me and my grandpa replaced the coil (I think that's what it's called, it's where the distributer would be if it had one) and the relay (right next to the battery). After putting the coil in, nothing happened. Then after we put in the relay, it started right up! It was fine for the rest of the day... Then the next day, guess what, it doesn't want to start again

We're pretty sure it's not getting any spark. We pushed on that little valve thing, and fuel squirted out so we guess it's fine. I'm leaving fot the Army in about a week so I don't want to put anymore money intot his thing, I just want to fix it myself for cheap so I can have somehting to drive around until I leave... So taking it to a shop is out of the question

[mede]

live in redding where summers are well over 104. Lately i have been parking in the shade and not had as many problems. Some days my car will not start right away It turns over but usually takes many tries before I can leave. The other day this happend before work I drove the 6 minutes to work and while breaking in the turn lane my car died it has never died while driving. I had to get pushed into the parking lot. When I turned the key to loosen my wheel the car started this was after the big push.Today I had to leave my car at work because it wont go.The wiring looks kind of funny by the battery like the previous owner had worked on it. Someone said it might be the control module but before paying the money I thought I would see if there are any other posibilities

[shinyface]

Mede, I moved to Phoenix from Seattle so I'm having the identical problem with my 93 Mercury Sable 3,8L V6 107K m. Normal condition is wait 45 minutes after attempting to restart. Most times it turns over. Recently though, it stalled on my wife after she left a drive up ATM 1/2 m from the house. When it won't start for a period over the 45 minutes, I charge (not jump) the battery first. As you may have seen in other posts, the sensor or faulty module seems to reset itself. Never been able to get error codes on a mechanic's system because I can't repeat the problem when I take it in. Wife just purchased another car so I found a buyer for the Sable. We're going to the dealer together on 8/17 to hopefully solve the problem ... I'll let you know the results.