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'80 LTD won't start

Hi all, My brother bought a LTD with a 302 a while back and lately it's having trouble starting, up till today, now it won't start at all.He changed the distributor cap but still nothing.He does smell the fuel after a while so that part seems covered. He gave up for now so tomorrow i'm going to give him a hand. He told me the engine doesn't even try, when you turn the key it's like starting without plug wires or fuel, it doesn't change it's rythm at all. First thing i will check is the plugs and wires, if they're fine what's the next thing to look for? I drove this car a week ago and apart from bad cold starts it drove real good but after a week standing still it won't start again. Also on the lower part of the dash there's a small chrome lever that doesn't look original, according to the previous owner it needs to be pulled out all the time, when the engine is still fairly cold it stalls when i push it back in but after a while of driving it doesn't seem to matter what i do with it, it keeps running.What can this be? Any tips are appreciated.

grtz sax

Reply to
Saxomophone
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manual choke......

Reply to
Spark

"Saxomophone" wrote in news:d6Kvb.36543$ snipped-for-privacy@phobos.telenet-ops.be:

Is there a spark? If not, probable bad ignition module.

Sounds like the lever is a manual choke. What a bad idea on that late a model. Automatic chokes worked real well by 1980. The person who put a manual choke on there must have been super anal.

The choke needs to be pulled out for cold starts and pushed back in as soon as the engine will allow it. Yes, it will run pulled out, but you'll get terrible gas mileage.

Reply to
donutbandit

If i don't have a spark, where can i find the module and how can i check if it works?I know it's not a TFI module because LTD didn't use those untill

I don't get it either, normally shouldn't i just need to press the gas once, let go and turn the key? I'm going to see if i can put it back like it was.

Strange, it took a while of driving before i could push it back in without stalling the car, but once i could there was no difference if it was in or out.A good warm engine shouldn't run well with the choke pulled out. Ah well first things first, it's dead now :) Thanks for the help

grtz sax

Reply to
Saxomophone

Duraspark II module, the big chunk o' aluminum bolted to the driver's side fender. They had a tendency to be flaky just like the TFI did. Be sure to note the color of the strain relief and the number of wires coming out; Ford made about a half-dozen different Duraspark and Breakerless modules over the years, and besides the wiring and the strain relief color, they all look the same.

On a 1980, the module is probably a bog-standard Duraspark II (blue strain relief, two connectors) or Dual Mode (yellow strain relief, three connectors, lets the engine use a baro or MAP switch to adjust the timing).

Sounds like someone may have swapped out the stock carburetor (a 2700VV, at least on the 49-state '80 LTD we had) with something else, as well. The VV carburetors were a rather radical attempt at a feedback carburetor, and from what I can remember about them, they tended to be troublesome -- we ended up replacing the 2700 on our LTD with a 2150, though it didn't actually help much.

-lee

Reply to
Lee Cremeans

It's alive, seemed to be a choke thing.First try this morning and it started right away, this time the automatic choke worked.

Great, i'll check out wich one it is, it still works but i'd like to know what it is anyway, never know when it might break down.

Either they switched it or they had some serious alteration done with it, thanks for the model numbers, now i can check if it's original or not. My brother wants some more 'noise' with the car because it's real silent now and i was thinking in the lines of flowmaster. Anyone here with a 302 who's got a louder exhaust?Any tips on what to get?Cherrybombs seem cheap but i don't know anyone who's got one. What about a new carb?I think i still got my old Charger's 750cfm but i think it's somewhat big for it.:) What would work on a 302?Not that it needs to be a quartermile car but it can use some fire in the belly. Thanks for listening

grtz sax

Reply to
Saxomophone

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