First off I am no good with wiring. I need some help figuring out what's up with my truck.
1986 f150. Was fuel injected
Now has a carbd 302 with random wires cut from the previous owner. It ran good until a few weeks ago. Parked it. 20 mins later it wouldn't start. But cranked normal. Getting fuel but no spark. New distributor,coil,ICM,plugs, and I replaced all the wires from the ICM to the coil. Still nothing. Has the duraspark II system on it. With the blue grommet ICM. I have found so many different diagrams I don't know where to start. But it ran before hooked up like this. Red and white wires on the ICM were both hooked up to a 12 gauge white/blue wire, which had a jumper wire to coil positive on it also. And the Orange,purple,black were ran to the dist. Green to coil neg.
on the starter relay a red/blue on the s terminal. I terminal has nothing. Hooked it up a few different ways and the coil and ICM get way to hot with the key in the run position. From what I've read it needs a resistance wire. Where would I find that and how can I hook it all up right.

 

See if you have a red/green wire laying around under the hood. This wire had the resistance in it for carbed trucks and sometimes the fuel injected trucks still had this wire. If you can't find it, go to the store and get one of the large white resistors for Chrysler products. You can hook this inline to the coil only. The ICM needs the white/blue wire directly for 12v, but the coil + needs the resistor to it. Here's a diagram.

 

Alright I'll look for that in the morning. I'll let you know what I find. I appreciate it. This thing has been a headache the past few weeks

 

Bill (Numberdummy) made this post in reply to a question I asked about the resistance wire just yesterday.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1394728-460-cutting-out-popping.html#post15597826

 

Alright. I hooked it up exactly as the diagram you posted said. And it still won't start. I put the ballast resistor in. Tried running wires differently. Still nothing. Any other ideas?

 

This is the resistor I installed.

 

I also have a question about these wires and what they go to. One of them is red. (Looks kinda pink) but it's real soft like it's almost burned up. What are they for ?





They plug into this. What is this called?





Goes to this connector.





Into a fuse able link.








And out into the fire wall. Brown, red/light green, and red. It's the one that's real soft. Should I rewire this also? I've not had much experience on 302

 

Franklin2, is this the red/green your talking about. If so its already hooked in. I don't know how I would wire it up in line with the coil +. Sorry for all the questions. I've just got to get this running. Just graduated school for diesel mechanics. And this old carb'd ford has got me stuck lol.

 

The fat pink wire is the resistor wire.

You have no spark at all?
Is the ground in the distributor good?
Is the distributor turning? (Putting a cast iron distributor gear in a engine with a steel cam will wipe it out in no time)

Power to both the red and white wires of the module will have the ignition constantly retarded, as if while cranking.

 

http://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.ford...0def0b3926.jpg

Are you looking at the front driver's side corner of the engine in the above picture? I think you are and if so, that's the oil pressure sending unit for the oil pressure gauge in the dash.

 

If there is more than two wires coming out of that black piece, that is a splice, not a fusible link. Fusible links are a little bit smaller and sometimes colored.

 

You need to get a testlight. Harbor Freight has them at a reasonable price, they call them "circuit testers"

The coil is where the "rubber meets the road" so to speak of the ignition system, it generates the spark. All this other stuff is just to support that. Get the testlight and clip the one lead to a good ground on the engine block. Turn the key to run and touch the + of the coil. It should light up. If not, see why you do not have power to the coil.

If you have power to the + of the coil, touch the tester to the - of the coil, and get someone to crank the engine. The testlight should blink when the engine is cranked over. If it's not blinking, then the coil is not being turned on and off by the ignition module.

Check for power at the ignition module. You should have power on the red wire going to the module, that would be the red wire in the Ford harness. I have heard the red and white wire may be swapped on some aftermarket modules, be aware of that. The Ford harness is always right though.

 

I have a test light and voltmeter.
Battery voltage at coil+ and coil- don't know why I have it at coil- and I have batt voltage at the red icm wire. All with key on. Test light flashes while cranking.
This has got me confused.

 

I take it back. My COIL- is NOT flashing during crank. So why is the icm not sending signal to it ??

 

The DuraSpark module triggers the coil by breaking the green wire's path to ground.

Either the green wire has NO path to ground to begin with (check the ground in the distributor)
Or, the module is not getting a trigger signal from the distributor. (orange & purple wires)