1986 Lincoln Town Car. Occassionally, the engine will crank but not fire, or I’m at a light or at the bottom of a hill and the engine dies. Most of the time it will re-start. Sometimes I have to open the hood and shake the portion of the wire harness that lies above the blower motor on the passenger side. Then it will fire. Some of these run to the coil and solenoid. I’ve tried shaking those also, but the car will not fire until I fumble around with the wires by the blower, next to the firewall. I used to have a very similar problem with a 1980 Mark VI, except I had to wiggle the wires near the solenoid to fire. Any ideas? New coil, distributor and rotor cap. 143,000 miles, I take exceptional care of this car, one previous owner, only 59,000 miles at that time. When it happens, I can smell some gas, so I suspect some kind of electrical problem as opposed to fuel. Car always cranks over fine with the starter.
Possibly related, occassionally I’m driving and the car bucks back and forth, as if the ignition was cut off and on, or fuel was shut off and on. I let off on the gas, reapply it and then O.K. I feel they are related.
Thanks, boB!
P.S. If you want me to have a nice day:
I’ve already made other plans, but thanks anyway.
Seeing as how the engine starts after you wiggle the wiring harness, you might want to separate all the wires and then the next time it stalls, wiggle one at a time to find the one with a break or corroded connection.
Unwrap the suspect wire bundle. Examine each wire closely for abraded areas, and breaks. Disconnect, and reconnect, every place where the wires connect; including any places it is attach to metal, or junction with a nut or screw.
You can use electrical tape to re-wrap the bundle. Auto parts stores have various colored plastic spiral tubes you can put around the wire bundles.
It was a bad ignition module on the distributor. Bon