My wife thinks our 93 wagons transmission is going. Its kind of making an intermittent jerking. It smelled like a motor problem to me, so i said i would look at it latter. The next day she calls me, car dead on the side of the road. I said "AH, i know what this is" Grabbed my spare TFI module, special tool, 10 MM with extensions timing light and head off to the dead animal. Put the timing light on it, no display. So i swapped out the TFI module and thought all was well. Tried to start it, still dead, no timing light, no spark.
Shit, did not bring the manual or more tools so back home for round #2. grab my shop manual more tools and DVM. And my kit of salvaged taurus parts (You find a donor, grab what you can).
Checked out the voltage to the TFI module. It was OK. I was beginning to think it was the pickup, then it struck me i have a ignition coil with me and it would only take a minute to swap it in.
Swapped the connector and the HV wire and the car started right up. So, i swapped the donor coil in and thought all was well. I did not smell a bad coil on this one. The car drove home OK, but the stutter was still there. Waited until it was dark and looked under the hood at the plug wires. There i saw the strangest display of intermittent arcing and wire corona i had ever saw. It appears the plug wires were causing the stumble and took out the coil. So, i changed out the plug wires this morning. It seems to be OK now, but time will tell. The night trick worked out well to see if the plug wiring is arcing to ground.
Morel of the story, be careful of what conclusions you jump to and what parts you change. For some reason, the TFI module on a 93 cost a hell of a lot more than the one on my 90 did. I am glad i had my supply of donor parts laying around to swap.
The only other issue i have not got a good answer on is plugs. I had previously put motorcraft double platinum plugs in this 3.0 because i got a screaming deal on them. After the fact, i found out they used the double platinum on the cars with coil pack ignition. This car uses the old distributor method. Does not use waste spark. Does anyone know if the double platinum plugs are used on a motor with a distributor instead of a coil pack could cause a problem? This 3.0 came OEM with single platinum.
BOB