Thursday, on the way to work, my car died on me, first time it has ever left me stranded. I called my supervisor, since he works part time at a paint and body shop. He went and got their wrecker, and picked me and the car up, then took me to work. He got their mechanic to work on the car, while i was at work. Turned out that the two bolts that hold the electronic module on the side of the distributor had coroded in two... and the module basically "unplugged" itself from the ditributor and was laying on the intake manifold! The bolt was coroded because of the dis-similer metals, aluminum housing, steel bolts... So we used some of the dis-similer metal paste that electricians use on aluminum to copper connections, to keep this from happening again. What is funny is, I was going to change the module out this weekend, as it had a crack in it. So since he couldn't get what was left of the bolts out of the distributor... Without drilling it out and retapping it, etc... He replaced it. He said there was also a fair amount of play in the old one, so it was probably best to replace it anyway. It was probably the original. I called my old Advance Auto Parts store I used to work at, and the manager sent their parts truck to another store to pick the part up, and delivered it to the shop for me, and let me pay for the part after work.
Helps to have friends! (She has always been super helpful, and knows her stuff when it comes to parts.. She has her own race car)
So, since the change out, the car is running smoother than it ever has... It also has quit having all of the "issues" it has been having... We figure it has probably not been "grounded" well for some time. Here is a list of what it was doing, So if you are having some of these problems... you may want to check to make sure your module is grounded to the distributor...
1. BAD spark knock... Even after going to the cooler thermostat like the Ford dealer suggested... Not as often, but it was still doing it once and a while when starting out from a stop light.
2. Smoking really bad after idling more than about 5 minutes... It would blow blue smoke and rattle really bad until the smoke cleared up... Usually after about half a block... then it was fine.
3. Sometimes when you started it up, (After the initial warm up, like stopping to eat somewhere) it would start up, then quit, then when you restarted it, is would run fine.
Yesterday I was off from work, and the car is running like a new car. I let it idle for twenty minutes while I worked on some radio issues with the new console I will be putting in it... And it ran fine when I drove off... no smoking, no spark knock... It runs like new!
Helps to have friends! (She has always been super helpful, and knows her stuff when it comes to parts.. She has her own race car)
So, since the change out, the car is running smoother than it ever has... It also has quit having all of the "issues" it has been having... We figure it has probably not been "grounded" well for some time. Here is a list of what it was doing, So if you are having some of these problems... you may want to check to make sure your module is grounded to the distributor...
1. BAD spark knock... Even after going to the cooler thermostat like the Ford dealer suggested... Not as often, but it was still doing it once and a while when starting out from a stop light.
2. Smoking really bad after idling more than about 5 minutes... It would blow blue smoke and rattle really bad until the smoke cleared up... Usually after about half a block... then it was fine.
3. Sometimes when you started it up, (After the initial warm up, like stopping to eat somewhere) it would start up, then quit, then when you restarted it, is would run fine.
Yesterday I was off from work, and the car is running like a new car. I let it idle for twenty minutes while I worked on some radio issues with the new console I will be putting in it... And it ran fine when I drove off... no smoking, no spark knock... It runs like new!
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