Truck is a 79 F250 Supercab 2x4, 460/auto.

Truck barely starts and runs like crap when it does. I cleaned everything on the dist, swapped coil, checked wires and found nothing until I looked at the ignition module and saw it's goo all over the fender. Ok, no biggie, I've got a spare,, WRONG. With the melted one, it got spark and would start sometimes, with the good spare, it gets NO spark whatsoever. Ok, maybe it's bad and another will work,, WRONG. Borrowed 3 from a friend, 1 is brand new and I can't get spark with any of them.

WHY does the melted one work but not the good ones?

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Have you checked the pick up coil in the distributor? Check the clearance between the reluctor and the pick up coil. How much play is in the distributor shaft?

 

Agreed, check the pickup in the distributor. If it's on the hairy edge of failure, it's not surprising that it will interface with some modules but not others. It's also possible something else is going on (such as the act of connecting/reconnecting actually does something else). There is no such thing as something that does not make sense; sometimes the answer simply takes longer to find.

 

1U2Z-12A199-AA (replaced D9VZ-12A199-A & D6AZ-12A199-A) .. Ignition Module ~ Blue plastic square (Motorcraft DY-893) / Available from Ford.

Myriad 1976/90's FoMoCo vehicles.
---------------------------------
D4PZ-12A112-A .. Stator aka magnetic pickup coil (Motorcraft DU-1A) / Available from Ford.

1974/79 all FoMoCo V8 vehicles with DuraSpark except 1979 LTD/Mercury Grand Marquis 351W with EEC.

The ignition modules used in the 1970's were so prone to failing, that Ford techs referred to DuraSpark as NeverSpark!

 

Looks like someone with really hot feet was walking on your seats.

I have nothing to ad to the above.

 

...... ........

 

I cleaned what I could on it. It was pretty rusty, but cleaned up nice. What kind of clearance should there be? It has a little play. Can you just replace that, without removing the dist? I've got two 460s and the first one I broke the vac advance off of trying to free it from the block, the second one is just as stuck and I don't want to break it also.

 

I guess I've been lucky. Between me, my parents and my siblings, we've probably owned twenty-plus Dentsides over the years, and I have yet to see a module fail. I've seen pick-up coils fail, distributors lock up, rotors break, caps crack, wires break, etc., but NEVER a module.

*I'm not arguing with you, ND, just making a statement...

 

I had a '77 F250 that I bought brand new. In the first 100,000 miles (Aprox. 3 years) the module was replaced three times.

 

Every one of the boxes is different look at the color codes

1 R-W-B-P-?-O
2 G-?-O-R-P-W
3 G-P-B-Y-W-R
4 ?-?-Y-?R-W-
5 Y-R-?-W-R

From what I can tell
The box has to be the right box.

Chuck it all and get a MSD 6A box.

 

That doesn't matter; that simply depends on the different designs used by different manufacturers and how they are pinned out of the circuit board. All that matters is the final pinout when the wires reach the connector.

 

You maybe right but its just something I noticed I allways just disconnected them and go MSD better spark...The kind you wont forget soon when you get shocked

 

The above is the current part number, in 1979 it was D9VZ-12A199-A which replaced D6AZ-12A199-A.

The ID engineering numbers marked on the module could be any of the following.

D6AE-12A199-A1A or A2A or A1B or A2B // D8VE-12A199-A1B or A2B or A1C or A2C
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The absolute worst POS NeverSpark module was D7AZ-12A199-A installed on some 1977/79 CA vehicles, had a Red plastic square.

Late 1978/early 1979: 10's of 1000's (!!) of brand new and customers vehicles were parked on dealers service lots, because the POS was defective and was on D99 backorder Detroit: FoMoCo had none.

It took THREE MONTHS before any were available and when we received them, they were no better than they were before!

I bought all the used modules I could find in CA, AZ & NV junkyards so we could fix some of the customers cars. It took another TWO MONTHS before we finally received modules that actually worked.

VocaTexas: How would you like to face SCREAMING OWNERS whose vehicles were out of commission for FIVE MONTHS? It was a FIASCO!

 

yeah, I wondered about the wires too, but all the plugs have identical pins. I wish I had the money to throw an msd in it, but I can't justify that when I'm not even sure if it's the only problem. I bought the truck as a parts truck and planned on scrapping what I didn't need but after I got it home I discovered the parts I wanted aren't really all that great. I figure if I can get it running quickly I'll sell it as a drivable truck, if not I'm gonna pull the bed and prolly scrap the rest.

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Check the wiring harness between the distributor and the DS-II Blue Grommet Module. Remove the harness, and check all the wires for continuity between each end using a multimeter set to ohms and for internal shorts between each wire.

The melted DS-II module could be internally shorted bypassing a wiring defect in the engine harness.


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Also is the Melted Module an original motorcraft one?

There are some wiring issues with Replacement DS-II modules people need to be aware of.

Some aftermarket and replacement Motorcraft modules accidentally reversed the Red and White Wire colors at the DS-II power connector:

Aftermarket and Replacement Motorcraft DS-II modules wire colors... and even some aftermarket harnesses and wiring diagrams.

START: WHITE
RUN: RED

Original Factory DS-II Module, Truck Wiring and original diagrams:

START: RED or RED/BLUE stripe
RUN: WHITE or WHITE/BLUE stripe

The wires colors will cross in the connector like this...


The modules are wired correctly even though the colors do not match or seem to cross each other at the replacement module power connector.

DO NOT match the RED for RED or The WHITE for WHITE color wires to each other on Replacement modules by cutting or making modifications. This will create starting and running problems and burn out the modules prematurely. Serious problem arises when people build their own harnesses, or wire them from scratch, due to the problem of swapped wire colors as described above.

The Connectors are idiot proof, and will connect correctly, as long as the trucks wiring hasn't been altered from the factory configuration.