1978 Ford Ranger F150 Starting Inconsistencies

Hi,

I just found this group and it seems most of you are pretty helpful.. I'd appreciate it if I can get some advice from a more experienced older Ford person.

My mom and dad sold me their 78 F150 for a great deal, and it's been restored, has 93,000 on motor. My dad had some issues with the starting, which I will explain in a second but here's what I did- I replaced the motorcraft 2bl with a 500cfm 2bl by Holley, dual flowmaster exaust and replaced the coil, ingition switch, etc.

The truck runs beautifully when it actually starts up. What happens is, it'll turn over a few times and on average, it'll start on the 3 or 4th attempt. It appears that it sparks when the key is released. On the occasions when the truck seems to have gone through 4 attemps of starting (just turns over) I'll give it about 3/4's gas and it'll start. Other occasions it'll start right up (usually once key is released).

I'm curious if this sounds like a timing issue, or fuel pressure (since it usually has issues when it's cold. Most of the time it'll start right up (suspecting when key is released) when it's warm).

For the record, it's got dual tanks, and my dad supspects that it's a fuel pressure issue, since the gas peddal has to be pressed on most occasions. My goal is to get it to start right up (electric choke works fine) and not take 3 or 4 start attemps to get it to start.

Thanks in advance. This was our back up car/ride, but we are selling our third since we bought a house, so I need it to start up reliably.

Jason

Reply to
Jason
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Reply to
Thomas Moats

Jason opined

Thomas Moats opined

?????

Put a VOM on the hot side of coil and read voltage to frame while in start, then while in run switch positions. about 10-12 volts in start, about 6-8 in run.

This is probably a Duraspark ignition setup.. and IIRC there was a version which had a weird start circuit.

I'd recommend finding a duplicate ignition module from a salvage yard and trying it.

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

Had a 79 Merc with Duraspark. Look for the connector with 2 wires, one red and one white. I don't recall which is which, but you should have voltage in one only while cranking, and voltage only in the other when running (or when key is in run position) If it is duraspark, there's no ballast resistor. Those were used for points setups.

Reply to
max-income

Look up a schematic some time, Ford used the resister well into the 90's, yes even on TFI ignitions.

Reply to
Thomas Moats

Check the adjustment on the choke. It sounds to me as if the choke is restricting the airflow to much. The way you turn a choke off is to tap the gas pedal. You may have to much choke on it.

Chris

Reply to
cv

"cv" wrote in news:VM28d.2176$q% snipped-for-privacy@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com:

you do not do anything to the choke by bliping the gas except kick the fast idle off. KB

Reply to
Kevin Bottorff

I gave the wrong explanation, oops. Still sounds like it is rich.

Reply to
cv

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