My 1983 Continental Mark VI!

[mercurygm88]

Might try cleaning the contacts on yours as-is. May be oxidized and just need a good clean.

Can I just shoot some contact cleaner into the plugs? They're pretty gummed up with what appears to be 20+ year old dielectric grease. The clips are also shot on the plugs of the old module.

[gadget73]

yep. melt out the goo with contact cleaner and maybe take a small pokey tool in there and give it a slight scrape to get rid of any crust. I've had problems with ancient connector grease turning into glue before. At that point it needs to go away. Put a bit of fresh spark plug grease in there and it should be happy again.

[mercurygm88]

yep. melt out the goo with contact cleaner and maybe take a small pokey tool in there and give it a slight scrape to get rid of any crust. I've had problems with ancient connector grease turning into glue before. At that point it needs to go away. Put a bit of fresh spark plug grease in there and it should be happy again.

I'll give that a try and see what happens, the old grease is pretty much glue at this point.

[sly]

+1 just hose it. Also, a firm toothbrush works great as a parts cleaner brush. I have some in my collection for cleaning electronics.

[mercurygm88]

+1 just hose it. Also, a firm toothbrush works great as a parts cleaner brush. I have some in my collection for cleaning electronics.

Thanks. I’ll do the crank position sensor plugs too now that I finally found where they’re hiding.

[Mainemantom]

Hmm...... I might be getting somewhere. Just after my last post I ran into town to grab some stuff from the gas station. The car didn't want to start, I pulled the key out of the ignition and put it back in and removed it several times, tried it again and it fired right up. Coincidence? Anything in the lock cylinder that could potentially cause this no start issue? I realize this is not a chipped key or anything, I don't even know if there are electrical contacts for the lock cylinder. I notice you have to get the key angled just right or it only goes about halfway in. Perhaps something with the ignition switch?

I took a picture of two ignition switches from my spare parts bin. They do have contacts and do go bad occasionally but not often. Not expensive or hard to replace. You have to keep in mind that you will have a new key though.

[gadget73]

only thing that contact in the cylinder does is make the door chime ring when the keys are in the ignition and the door is open. Won't bother how it starts or runs.

[sly]

Also, they're not hard to re-pin. I just swapped the pins from my old one over to the new one. Still using the original keys. The pins weren't worn much at all.

[mercurygm88]

Ok so I put the new ignition module/Duraspark box in today mainly because the clips were busted on the plugs on the old one. I cleaned the connectors up real good with some contact cleaner and a tooth brush, did the same with the crank position sensor plugs. We'll see how it goes from here.

[mercurygm88]

Well it's only been 24 hours but so far so good "knock on wood." I've also noticed that it's starting a lot quicker since I did what I did. Almost an instant start as opposed to a second or two of cranking.

[DerekTheGreat]

Reminds me, I remember my '85 would start nearly instantly too. Makes me think they program a delay into most cars, maybe for oiling reasons?

[clutch47]

Reminds me, I remember my '85 would start nearly instantly too. Makes me think they program a delay into most cars, maybe for oiling reasons?

...But... THAT would make sense....

[mercurygm88]

Reminds me, I remember my '85 would start nearly instantly too. Makes me think they program a delay into most cars, maybe for oiling reasons?

I don't' know. All of my 4.6 panthers from the '95 MGM to the '03 TC would start almost instantly too unless they sat for a few days. I don't think I've ever had a vehicle sit for more than a week without starting it.

[sly]

All the SEFI/EFI stuff waits for the offset pin on whatever sensor they get timing from. Some require one rotation of the engine (crank sensor) the rest require 2 (cam/dizzy sensor). So if the fuel pressure is good, one to two turns of the crank should get it to start firing. "Should".

[gadget73]

^^ this, engine has to spin far enough to know what cylinder is coming up. 4.6 cars have a crank position sensor so it requires less than 1 rotation for an ID, 5.0 cars do this from the distributor so it can be up to 2 rotations.

CFI cars don't care what cylinder is coming up, its batch fire so it just sprays one injector or the other. I expect the trucks would also light off quicker for the same reason.