ok thats a big nothing. I checked wire harness. Wires look good. Nothing burnt or loose. I'm gonna take it to the bus stop once again and see what happens!

 

I would agree. These items often don't set a code when they fail, so you can't eliminate them because you didn't get a code. I carry spares of all 3 - I've had each of them fail on a Ford at one time or another.

I'd be inclined to replace the distributor at this point. Me being me, I'd swap in my spare which is a "known good" one I grabbed at the junkyard.

 

You should not use dielectric grease on the Ignition control module. You need to use a heat transfer grease (white thermal compound). You can get it at someplace like radio shack if they still sell it.
Dielectric grease is not a heat transfer grease.

 

Are you saying there needs to be thermal conductivity? Electrical conductivity yes, but most heat transfer grease uses silicon as a base anyway. From what I have read, using a silicon dieelectric will work as long as there is enough pin pressure to make contact through the grease.

If you need electrical conductive grease, one of the metal infused (silver, aluminum, etc. thermal greases) will be required. Perhaps even anti-seize would work since it is electrically conductive.

 

Yes that is what it is all about.

There is no electrical conductive, no pins and no wires.

 

I recall rla and I discussing some years ago. Even thou Haynes or chiltons repair manual states dielectric grease, there was a TSB from Ford stating a thermal type grease be used. There is several different types available and using a good computer CPU type grease will work fine.

 

My mistake, I must have looked up an incorrect picture that showed a box with two wired plug ends with pins, etc. Not the correct part obviously!

 

The picture you were looking at is from the old Duraspark II ignition system. Yes they had two plugs and you used dielectric grease in the plugs. That was used on non fuel injection engines.

What we are talking about is the heat transfer between two metal parts to keep the ICM cool on a fuel injection engine. One of the parts is finned with a flat surface that the ICM screws to. The heat transfer grease (white thermal compound) is used between these two surfaces.

 

i also had this problem with my 92 with the 4.9 what mine turned out to be was a weak ignition module, the great part is the top of the line ignition modules are 50 dollars max, my mechanic said this was a common problem with them and only charged me 50 dollars for labor what happens is as you drive the electrical current warms up the wire and then for some reason it looses conductivity and the motor dies, this happened to me as i was doing 80 down the interstate, all i have to say is when you lose all power accessories at 80 your drive gets wayyyyyy more interesting

 

I hate to break it to you, but I wouldn't say $50 for 10 minutes of easy work is any bargain. It's about as easy a "repair" as can exist, especially with the '92+ trucks where the module is remotely mounted on the inner fender.

Not to hi-jack too far off course, but I noticed the earlier comment about this application requiring the black TFI rather than the gray. Is that correct? If so, what year was the change-over made? I know the '92/3 trucks at a minimum used the gray one. I was under the impression the gray one was used through to '96 but I'll gladly be corrected if that's not right.

 

according to my mechanic it is not the ignition control module but the ignition module in the steering wheel relatively close to the key

 

therefore it would take a little longer than 10 minutes to disasemble the entire steering wheel and such, at least there is no airbag to worry about but there is a common confusion between the ignition control module and the ignition module

 

There's confusion only when things are called by their wrong names. What you're referring to is most commonly called the ignition switch and I can't say I've ever known of someone to confuse that with the ignition control module, most commonly referred to as the "TFI".

Regardless, the symptoms described here are not really consistent with an ignition switch failure. They ARE consistent with a component failure, such as the TFI or PIP (inside the distributor).

 

The last year that ford used the push-start gray Ignition Control module in a truck was 1993.

The 1994 and newer truck used the CCD Black Ignition Control Module (ICM).
You can plug the gray one in a 1994 and newer truck but it will not start or run as well. It will also set a code in the computer memory that you are missing the IDM information.

 

If you have to take the steering wheel off it was not the Ignition Switch. Could have been the Ignition tumbler, the thing you put the key in and turn. But I think it can also be changed out without pulling the steering wheel.
The Ignition switch is located under the dash and mounted on top of the steering column.
Maybe the clockspring but that should not have killed the engine.