92 Festiva Slow Start / No Start

[Timothy]

Hope you learned a lot Timothy. You seem eager to learn about the Festivas. Get thee to ebay and buy yourself a 1992 Ford Festiva shop manual and an EVT Troubles shooting manual. They are worth their weight in gold.

I can't wait untill i get $30 in my hand, cause I know where I'm going to spend it.

[dalebwilson]

That starter and engine cranking sounds different than both of the Festys I have owned. Glad that it runs though. This has been a difficult thread for me to follow with all the twists and turns about no spark and then VAF problems. I would borrow and install a known good VAF and put that part of it to bed.


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[Timothy]

The vaf's ground connection is located near the distributor and is attached to the head on the front of the engine. I think the bolt that attaches it may also attach the bracket that hold the accelerator cable. It has two black wires attached to a brass attaching ring.

I just cleaned the grounds thank you so much for letting me know where they were. This is the before photo.
IMG_0124.jpg

That starter and engine cranking sounds different than both of the Festys I have owned. Glad that it runs though. This has been a difficult thread for me to follow with all the twists and turns about no spark and then VAF problems. I would borrow and install a known good VAF and put that part of it to bed.


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Thanks for the feedback and advice. I agree this thread has been all over the map, but it is good to know I am making very good progress.

On my previous video I accidently had cylinder 4 spark plug wire disconnected. It sounds a little better in this video.

[Timothy]

I dont see where that bk/w wire to the coil goes through the engine fuse but it does go through that fuse to the main relay and on to about every other engine function including the vaf.

I did find this schematic in the Chilton manual while I was at the library this morning. It shows that the Engine 10A fuse is right before the ignition coil and ignition module. So it's in the mix somehow.

I have gotten to the point where my brain hurts thinking about this. LOL
IMG_0100.jpg

[1990new]

I did find this schematic in the Chilton manual while I was at the library this morning. It shows that the Engine 10A fuse is right before the ignition coil and ignition module. So it's in the mix somehow.

I have gotten to the point where my brain hurts thinking about this. LOL
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20310[/ATTACH]

The images you show are in this manual:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1992-Festiva...NXJhpW&vxp=mtr

When you are first leaning it takes time to absorb it all.. after many years I'm still learning lots of new things and remember things I forgot.

The only connection from the main fuse is to the main relay and then to ground, which when powered, supplies power from the battery to all the other systems show under that relay. The power to the coil is show coming directly from the ignition in the on position with no fuse between it and the coil.

If you get the manual, you will see all the ground locations and realize what can happen when one of them is corroded causing the ground to fail.

Here is a link to the other manual on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1992-FORD-FE...3IvV4A&vxp=mtr

[Timothy]

Thanks for the links.

[firebush357]

Can you take a picture of your VAF Wiring Harness and Connector?

[firebush357]

The images you show are in this manual:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1992-Festiva...NXJhpW&vxp=mtr

When you are first leaning it takes time to absorb it all.. after many years I'm still learning lots of new things and remember things I forgot.

The only connection from the main fuse is to the main relay and then to ground, which when powered, supplies power from the battery to all the other systems show under that relay. The power to the coil is show coming directly from the ignition in the on position with no fuse between it and the coil.

If you get the manual, you will see all the ground locations and realize what can happen when one of them is corroded causing the ground to fail.

Here is a link to the other manual on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1992-FORD-FE...3IvV4A&vxp=mtr

What most people don't realize is that if you lose a Ground then the electricity will find another way to ground and possibly back feed into other systems to get there. An easy way to picture this is almost like 2 rivers flowing directly into each other... Shit doesn't work right.

[Timothy]

Can you take a picture of your VAF Wiring Harness and Connector?

I'm scared if I remove wire harness I won't get it started again. I did visually inspect the inside of the connector. And if I remember there were 6 female connectors and the sixth one was brass colored. Let me see if I can get you some good photos.

Does anyone have a photo of the ignition coil and mounting bracket in their car that they can share. I remember hastily taking everything off and being confused by when I reinstalled. Just want to see if I put it back on right.

[firebush357]

I just wanted to see what condition it was in that was causing it to Wiggle loose really. Your Connector does have the piece of springy metal that keeps it tightly connected right?

[Timothy]

Yes. It is firmly wrapped around the connector.

I just did a voltage drop test. Interesting results. Now granted I was doing this myself so I can not absolutely gaurentee there was solid contact between the positive battery terminal and positive starter connectio because I had to also crank the car myself.

Anyway the meter dipped and spiked from 0.1 to 13 and all numbers in between. I read that when you get a new result like that it is indicative of an open circuit. I will try to very results soon when I can hav som one crank car for me and I can make sure multimeter leads are firmly connected for the test.

FYI car is still starting and running well. It started fine this morning and the temperature was 16F.

[Timothy]

Ok I got a help to crank the engine.

Here are the results of drop test to starter.
Voltage drop test on positive =0.6 (sounds a tad high)
Voltage drop test on ground =0.2

[FestYboy]

Ok, clean the connections, and you may want to upgrade the power and ground wires to the next gauge up.