I'm about to admit defeat on this one, hopefully you guys can help as well as you did with the transmission issue.
The car is an 84 with the 5.0 and AOD, 133,000 miles, all original right down to the tail pipe. It's my friends car and had been having problems with stalling, severe bucking, and random no-start. When it wasn't having any of these antics, it ran very smooth and drove great (no stuttering). I replaced the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, as well as the TFI module at the suggestion of a friend and seconded by someone here. It no longer stalls, bucks or has any issues starting, however... when cruising at speed, say 45 mph, it stutters. It's a bit random, and it sort of feels like a partial misfire. It doesn't do it when accelerating, and it doesn't do it at high speed, like 70-75 mph (or if it does I can't feel it). It does it at low speeds, and medium speeds. It does it with OD on and with it off.
Here's the annoying part. I replaced the TFI module (with an oem Ford Motorcraft part) before I replaced the plugs and cap and rotor. On the night I replaced the TFI module I took it out for a drive afterwards to test the new TFI and it ran beautifully. No problems of any kind at any speed. It was probably around 70 degrees that night, possibly cooler (I mention that because that's cold for a Florida summer night and it hasn't been that cool since). I parked it in the driveway and let it sit overnight I started it up the next day to take it for a final drive before giving it back to my friend... and the stutter started.
Replacing the distributor cap and rotor (old one had aluminum lugs, new one has brass) seemed to help, but only lessened the intensity of the stutter, it still basically acts the same way. Replacing the plugs (with plain Autolite 26, gapped to approx. 53) had no effect (though one of the old ones broke when removing it). I checked the timing with a light today and it was a smidge off the old paint mark, nothing that would affect performance. (A smidge is maybe a 1/4 inch on the crank indicator, the markings are too dirty to read the degrees.) I did also disconnect that one certain wire before checking the timing as per instructions. I ran the gas tank until almost empty and then filled it up and drove it almost 100 miles with the new gas. I disconnected the negative battery cable and let it sit overnight as suggested by a friend. Today I put the old TFI module back on and it still stutters. It also didn't exhibit any of the old starting/bucking/stalling issues for the 10 minutes I drove it around with the old TFI module. Going to put the new TFI module back on tomorrow and recheck the timing with that one.
The only other things I did to the car were replace the old rusted out tail pipe with a new one, adjust the TV linkage on the transmission due to hard shifting as suggested in my other thread, clean a few electrical connections, and remove some transmission fluid after it'd been slightly over filled by a shop.
I'm thoroughly stumped.
The car is an 84 with the 5.0 and AOD, 133,000 miles, all original right down to the tail pipe. It's my friends car and had been having problems with stalling, severe bucking, and random no-start. When it wasn't having any of these antics, it ran very smooth and drove great (no stuttering). I replaced the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, as well as the TFI module at the suggestion of a friend and seconded by someone here. It no longer stalls, bucks or has any issues starting, however... when cruising at speed, say 45 mph, it stutters. It's a bit random, and it sort of feels like a partial misfire. It doesn't do it when accelerating, and it doesn't do it at high speed, like 70-75 mph (or if it does I can't feel it). It does it at low speeds, and medium speeds. It does it with OD on and with it off.
Here's the annoying part. I replaced the TFI module (with an oem Ford Motorcraft part) before I replaced the plugs and cap and rotor. On the night I replaced the TFI module I took it out for a drive afterwards to test the new TFI and it ran beautifully. No problems of any kind at any speed. It was probably around 70 degrees that night, possibly cooler (I mention that because that's cold for a Florida summer night and it hasn't been that cool since). I parked it in the driveway and let it sit overnight I started it up the next day to take it for a final drive before giving it back to my friend... and the stutter started.
Replacing the distributor cap and rotor (old one had aluminum lugs, new one has brass) seemed to help, but only lessened the intensity of the stutter, it still basically acts the same way. Replacing the plugs (with plain Autolite 26, gapped to approx. 53) had no effect (though one of the old ones broke when removing it). I checked the timing with a light today and it was a smidge off the old paint mark, nothing that would affect performance. (A smidge is maybe a 1/4 inch on the crank indicator, the markings are too dirty to read the degrees.) I did also disconnect that one certain wire before checking the timing as per instructions. I ran the gas tank until almost empty and then filled it up and drove it almost 100 miles with the new gas. I disconnected the negative battery cable and let it sit overnight as suggested by a friend. Today I put the old TFI module back on and it still stutters. It also didn't exhibit any of the old starting/bucking/stalling issues for the 10 minutes I drove it around with the old TFI module. Going to put the new TFI module back on tomorrow and recheck the timing with that one.
The only other things I did to the car were replace the old rusted out tail pipe with a new one, adjust the TV linkage on the transmission due to hard shifting as suggested in my other thread, clean a few electrical connections, and remove some transmission fluid after it'd been slightly over filled by a shop.
I'm thoroughly stumped.
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