markmakeitso

Good day eh,
Friend of mine is having trouble with his Tempo (91 or 92, 5sp, 4 cyl). He went over a large bump and his unsecured battery shorted across his hood. The car died immediately, then restarted a couple minutes later. He got 2 more starts out of it and then no more. He now has a new battery and appreciation for battery straps. Ahem.

Anyway, the only way we can get it to crank is to run a wire from batt positive to the starter solenoid. There's +12 at the 2 contacts in the harness at the key cylinder, and I found the contacts to jump to get power at the coil. We don't get a spark however, and we haven't started checking for fuel until we get the spark thing worked out.

I don't have a wiring diagram or anything, but I'm assuming the starter solenoid voltage passes through the clutch switch, and then maybe splits to go to the solenoid and the ignition module. What does the ignition module even look like? I have a decent amount of automotive experience, but next to nothing on Fords.

He'd like to get this working on the cheap, so if it's possible to bypass the key cylinder with a throw switch and a momentary switch for the solenoid we're prepared to do it. Thanks for reading this far, and give us a hand before he buys a 79 Malibu or something ridiculous.

Mark

JOAT

the ignition module is that grey thing on the side of the dist ..... power comes from the battery to the switch to the coil and finally thru the dist ( ground )

you can apply batt power to the + side (red) of the coil and jumper the starter solenoid ...... ( key on ) and it should start .... or spark

if it doesn't spark , check the coil ... then the dist module .... if you have a spark , then check the fuel pump relay ( beside the master brake cyl ) ( or listen for the pump noise in the tank when you first turn on the key to "run" position )

markmakeitso

Alright, thanks for the help. I'll try that stuff out. I might just end up grabbing parts from a scrapyard.

Later
Mark