Won't start with key

[Lonzo607]

I have a 1989 ford festiva, fuel injected, manual transmission. The car runs like a new one when you pull start it. It turns over well with the key but the coil won't fire. After dissassembly of ignition switch I found it ran after pull starting but wiggling the key caused a miss to near engine kill. Only two wires are still affected by the key located on back of switch. what do these go to? Do they complete a ground or something of that nature. I'm stumped. This is a great car and I really need to fix this problem.

[Tom]

They would have to be your ignition wires, they complete the circuit and get fire to your spark plugs. It sounds like you found your problem.

[ericsmith32]

Does your fan run when it's cold and you first try to start it? I know on at least 2 or more EFI festiva's it wouldn't start because of the fan running, carb's maybe different. I know on my 91 if I giggled the key it would hesitate on occasion.. I don't know if the new ignition key cured that problem though.

[festifrank]

Couple of days ago i had a spark problem like you. There is a couple of test you can do :
1- unscrew the distributor cap and look if it turn when you crank the engine. (if he don't your timing belt is broken)
2- try with a new coil
3- try too ground your engine with a jump cable from the negative pole of the battery to the engine.
4- try a new computer, it is under the dash driver side your are able too unplug it without take out the dash and plug a new one to test it.
5- Get the wire diagram and find the ground