Brian,

I used to have an EXP that started doing the same thing one Friday night...Turned out that the magnetic pickoff in the distributor was breaking down after heating up and the engine would just die for no apparent reason. Waiting a few minutes and she would restart as if everything were normal...got no codes reported...but then she would run for a while, then shut down again...Had dealer replace the pickoff..ran fine after that.

Just a thought.

Ron

 

all you need to pull the codes is an analog multi-meter. you really otta grab a Chiltons or Haines (if you dont already have one) and read through that section...and the electronic distributor ignition section. i would keep looking at that distributor and related parts...still sounds like an ignition/heat issue to me...also check your ground wires, as previously suggested. clean all the connectors at dist and coil with some contact cleaner and re-connect with some fresh di-electric grease.

 

FYI I have an 89 aerostar 3.0, one day while I was changing my oil and oil filter I bumped a ground wire by the starter/oil filter area and broke it. I didnt have time to fix it so I started my van up and it was running fine so I figured I would fix it later sometime. The next day I did some running around and all was fine, the next morning the van would not start at all, the starter engaged and the motor spun like mad. I probably spun that poor engine for a minute, it had never done this before and would not start, even after I cursed at it . I fixed the ground wire that is by the starter/oil filter area and it started right up, no trouble since. Not sure if this is your problem but just thought I would share my experience.

 

Thanks! I figure (now) that there has to be something wrong down there. I'll take it all loose and put it back together again. By the way - is these supposed to be a skinny red wire connected to the same terminal as the big cable from the battery? This wire is coming out of the loom on the main cable, and has a crimp connection in it.

Brian

 

There doesn't appear to anything wrong with the starter hookup, so maybe it's the distributor. I've decided that I'll just take it back to the mechanic, since fooling with the distributor in this particular vehicle would be beyond me due to the space considerations (and if it *isn't* the distributor, I'm still up the creek). Now, if it was any of the other three, no sweat. Given the problems I've had with it over the past year, I may be replacing it soon.

 

I would pull the codes and see where that leads you. I am not saying go out and replace your throttle position sensor, but I had a TPS go bad and it shut me down when the throttle was a certain points.

 

Will do what I can if (and when) the engine starts. It won't start at all now.

 

It's been too cold to do much this past week, but I have gone out every day and tried to start it. No spark to the engine, just cranked and cranked ... then today, bingo, it starts first try. This lets out any overheating in the distro after running. My wife and I have about decided to get rid of it and go for a new van rather than sink any more money into it.

 

It's sad to get rid of it now that you have narrowed the problem down that far. No spark narrows it down considerably and might suggest an intermittent ground that needs to be traced, could even be a dirty or cracked connector somewhere.

 

I once had a broken wire coming off the back of the ignition switch. The motor would turn over but wouldn't start.

As soon as I patched the wire it started right up.

 

Well, here it is 11 days later. Through the recent cold snap, I went out every day and cranked the engine, Yesterday, it started with no problem at all. While it was running, I ran it down to the shop - praying all the way it wouldn't die in rush-hour traffic. The mechanic took down all the particulars and said he'll have to keep it until it "breaks" again to figure out what the problem is. With my luck the sucker will start each and very time now. Anyway. I will make sure and let y'all know what the mystery ailment was, and how much it cost to fix.

 

Should be fixed now. It had a bad ignition switch (a brand X from NAPA I put in a couple of weeks ago) and something wrong with a connection from the ignition lock. That might have been the same thing that fried the original ignition switch. Anyway, the result was intermittent power to the EEC relay depending on what position the connection happened to be in - if it shifted just a tiny bit, it cut power to the engine. It's starting every time now, so I guess that was it. Cost me a total of $285; $47 of which was parts. I would *love* to have a slant-6 and a dash-mounted ignition in this.

 

OK, I'm hotter than a firecracker now. Took the "fixed" Aerostar out. Local errands went fine; took off on an extended run. 25 miles out, the same !@#$% thing happened. I managed to get home after coasting to the shoulder, waiting a couple of minutes, and restarting 8 times. I'm pretty sure it has to be fuel pump related- about three times after the engine quit, it restarted, hesitated, and kept going. There'll be words exchanged with the mechanic on Monday. Odd thing - a couple of time when the engine quit, there was a pretty good jolt.

 

BPshriner,

Could still be a bad pickup in distributor overheating on longer trips. Just a thought.

Ron

 

Here is a reprint of my own experience with the mysterious loss of power. It took almost 7 months to find the problem and has not reoccured since. Also, the power readings are much higher now than they have ever been. Been close to 3 months and no problems at all.

Hope this helps!!

John


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At Wit's End Electrical
I think I have found the problem to the weird occasional power problem and a previous problem that re-occured where all power in the car would go away and suddenly come back when you closed the hood or shook the wires.

The problem re-occured a few nights ago. After going for several days without major problems, my wife drove home from work and when she turned off the engine, once again all power was gone in the car. I came out and shook everything carefully and finally found the wire that was causing the problem.

There is a red wire between the starter solenoid on the starter and the starter relay on the top driver side of the engine fender wall. It is a 10 guage wire and gets bolted on by itself on one of the terminals on the relay. When I carefully would shake this, it would cause all power to go out and then all power to go back on. What did not make since was, when I took the wire off completely, the power would be on, but of course the starter would not start.

I determined the top 8 to 10 inches held the problem, so I cut off that portion, including the terminal crimp, and then stripped all the insulation off to see what the wire looked like. The top 6 inches were very black, as if it was arcing, but the wire was not broken in any way.

I crimped a new piece of wire and new terminal eye onto the existing wire and reconnected it and the power seems very stable now with no strange symptoms.

I can only guess that somehow moisture got into the wire and slowly caused it to deteriorate. Under certain conditions the wire would arc inside and trip some kind of circuit breaker in the electrical circuit. I really have no idea why this wire that was not shorting out against anything elese could cause all power in the car to stop, but hopefully, it's repair has caused the problem to go away. I will totally replace the wire soon.

Sorry for the long message but this has gone on so long I felt a full explanation was warrented.

John