Wonderstart has become my truck's name. Why? We wonder if it's going to start every time we get in it. It's been a weird random condition usually only occuring in the morning when I want to get to work.

We've spent about two months trying to figure out why it hasn't wanted to start every now and then. It all started with a tune-up in March. Replaced the ignition module, distributor cap and rotor, plugs, wires, and some other stuff at the time ... since then I've added a new alternator, voltage regulator, umm ... and some new wiring too. The sporadic starting problem persisted.

Turned out in the end (we hope ... or I'll soon have an 84 F150 for sale) to be a puzzling intermittant problem with the fuel pump. I didn't realize the older mechanical pumps were subject to odd RANDOM bouts of failure ... but that's why it was a stumper. It ran fine in my mechanic's care for two days, he called me to pick it up today and POOF! Wouldn't start again. He didn't look happy with me when I told him it was dead again. So we pulled the fuel line from the pump, cranked it, and nothing. I did the same last weekend and sprayed gas all over the place. Really weird. But it's been replaced, the truck is running smoothly again ... but it's still going to take a while for it to earn my trust back. We'll see if it's still fitting the name "Wonderstart" in a few weeks. I really hope not. I want to take the toy off the road for summer body/paint/mechanical work that will decommission it for a while. Here's hoping!

(besides, with gas prices climbing over 82 cents a litre ... $3.13 a gallon Canadian [US gallon] or $2.05US a gallon ... the truck gets better gas mileage in town!)

Chris in Canada
74 Gran Torino Brougham ... the toy ... older and wiser ... always runs ... just rolled 38,000 miles last week.
84 F150 2WD ... "Wonderstart" ... for the last two months we've wondered if it was going to start every time we got in ... wife says, "never trust a teenager." ... just about to roll 100,000 miles.

 

Wow! I thought I was the only one with the "Wonderstart" problem. For a while last year my boyfriend was driving my 1982 Bronco and he never had any problems with it starting. He finally gave it back and I began driving it last September(I think). Around the middle of November it started giving me troubles. I was in the same exact situation where it would start when it felt like it. We replaced a few minor things and it still kept doing it, starting randomly. I too was trying to go to work and school. It was very frustrating because there were many times when my boyfriend would go out and the damn thing would start right up for him, but it wouldn't for me. I was under the impression that my truck liked him so much(because he drove it from the first day I got it)that it was trying to tell me that or something. I was just completely confused. One time it wouldn't start because the choke was frozen shut. Living in Minnesota it's understandable, but still kind of odd. We never did figure out what was causing it to choose when it wanted to start, but it eventually went away and I haven't had any problems with it starting since(knock on wood). I just thought it was really weird that it started sometimes and not others, especially when we really didn't repair much and the weather didn't change much.

Angie
1979 T-Bird
1982 Bronco