innacsai

Hello all! I've posted before, but it's been so long that my account was deleted.

Anyhow, I have an 89 ford crown victoria, with the 5.0 EFI. About a year ago, it started developing an interesting problem. While driving, it would sort of stall, in a strange way. It seemed like the computer would cut out - check engine light would come on, the tack would drop to 0, and of course everything was unresponsive. It happened once or twice, I fiddled with things, and it was ok for a while, though not because of anything I did.

It progressively got worse, and now the car is almost undriveable. The check engine light will come on, or flicker, and the car stalls and bucks as it loses spark and the fuel pump shuts off. You can hear the fuel pump relay click at the same rate of speed the CE light flickers. I immediately thought loose connection somewhere.

Since, I've replaced the ECU power relay, the fuel pump relay, checked all the wiring (tore apart a good deal of harness too) - checked the plug that connects to the computer. This problem happens even when just the power is on, and the engine is off, so that if the key is in the ON position you can hear the FP relay clicking madly occasionally, when the problem occours. I've left the power on while I abused the wiring in an attempt to check for any faults that weren't visible, with no results. This problem is inconsistant with temperature, duration of time, vibration or shock, or anything. Looking though the schematics I found every wire involved with giving power to the computer and grounding it, and all the wiring is fine.

My question is, for you guys that have had much more experience than I have, is this a common sign of a failing computer? Has anyone had similar problems with their cars and been able to correct it? Aside from this problem the car is a tank, is mechanically sound and reliable, and gotten me through a lot without fail. If I need a new/used/working EEC, do I need to find one specifically for the CV, or will the ones from a like-engined Lincoln, Marquis, or Mustang work? Perhaps any advice on, since if I'm going to have to anyway, getting something that might give the car a little more power?

I've had good responses with this forum in the past, and I thank you all for your help in advance. =D

_casey

 

BlueSteel

Check the timing, water temp, and spark plug gap. Also you have a brain on the distributor that did that on my 88 CV, it started dying and the car wouldn't even start at one point. Also you'r altenator could be going bad. When the car is running you should get between 13.49 and 14.08 volts to the battery. Go to auto zone and have then run a test on it, its free. Or come to my place in michigan, I'll check it :)

92VICMEM

so if your altenator was only putting out 12 could that cause the car to die