How I love my fords. Now I don't have the flashiest Ford, or the most regularly serviced at a mechanics, but it does the job (most of the time). Up until yesterday, the car has run well, rarely giving me issue, the only real issue I've had is having to replace the power steering switch on the steering rack.

Started the car up yesterday, gave it its usual minute to warm up and then proceeded driving to work (which is only a few minutes away), the car ran fine and everything was good. Then came lunch, drove home and she idled rough and hunted and red lights, but got me home. Then came the drive back to work and she continued what she was doing earlier so I put my foot down a little, like I usually would, to clear it out. That's when the car figured it would have none of that and died. I managed to pull to the curb with the momentum remaining.

The next idea was to try and start her again. I got nothing. The car sounded like it would turn as if it had a flat battery (though it wasn't flat) for a few turns and then it would turn quite a few times in a row and then round back to do this again and again. I ended up walking back to work and organised a mate to help tow the car back. Jumped into the car and tried to turn it over and it didn't do the single crank it was before, it was just turning over as usual, as if it had no fuel though.

So I had the car towed back home this afternoon (scored a tow truck for $30). Grabbed a can of aerostart thinking that it would probably be a fuel related issue (though I could hear the fuel pump prime on ignition), to my disappointment, it did nothing.

My next idea was to search around both fordmods.com and fordforums.com.au to see how others in this situation handled it (each of the threads I've found I'm posting links to so I can easily find the info again. They mostly state the same thing so the next thing I'm going to try is removing the first spark plug smelling for fuel and then putting a screw driver near the tappet cover bolt (2mm or 3mm) and seeing if there's spark. I'm really hoping its just a dizzy, lead, TFI or plug issue as one of the other guys had the dizzy gear stripped. I guess that's worst case scenario though.

The main problem I had with these other threads, was that no one had posted the solution so here I go, from start to hopeful finish to detail what's happened with the car to get her back up and going.

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11230174
ford-4l-and-6-cylinder-f1/el-wont-start-t81574.html
ford-4l-and-6-cylinder-f1/el-fairmont-ghia-won-t-start-t92827-15.html
ford-4l-and-6-cylinder-f1/need-help-el-falcon-wont-start-t103716.html -- Teeth missing
http://www.justanswer.com/australia-car ... -dash.html
http://www.fordaustraliaforums.com/foru ... wont-start

At least no one is going to be able to say I haven't had a search. Haha.

Any input is going to be much appreciated as well.

I have spark on the first plug, which is a bluey purple colour.

The next notable thing from turning it over just then was that the throttle body made two loud "Puff" or deeper "Pough" noises. I'm hoping thats the aerostart left in there, but am unsure.

You're in luck! I just had this EXACT same issue! After a few hundred dollars of trouble shooting and replacing parts it was the Distributor! It has two sensors which tend to get fried over time from heat. The TFI and the Hall Effect Sensor, and usually go within a few weeks or months of each other, so the best bet it to just get the whole new distributor ( all nice and new and clean ) and put that on! Beats the price of the two sensors alone as well.

I replaced the leads too as it's easy to do while you're pulling the distributor off ( horrible awkward positioning by ford engineers. )

That's what was wrong with mine anyway, and symptoms were pretty much exact! Hope this helps. Any questions just ask!

Thanks Ryan. I got a quote from Parts for Cars. Here's what they've quoted me (not sure if that's good pricing or if I should get a second quote).

They had no idea what the Hall Effect Sensor is. I tried explaining it has to do with the distributor and is a magnet part or something.

BPR5EY-11 NGK Spark Plugs $17.20+
Ford Falcon Top Gun Leads (Pretty sure I heard they were ****) $40.59+
CM426 Ignition Module (Apparently I can also use CM420) $58.86+
Distributor Cap (Unknown brand - GB862 / BH144) $17.05+
Rotor Dist (Unknown brand) $7.95+
Coil Ignition (Unknown brand) $45.50+
Fuel Filter (Unknown brand) $8.95+
TOTAL $215.70Inc.

Now the next question, is that worth while pricing or would I be best to source elsewhere.

I hear a lot about distributor cogs/auxiliary shaft stripping with aftermarket distributors. So if you plan on changing the whole distributor and shaft, remove the distributor component and swap the shaft over from the original. This will maintain the original shaft while having new plastics/electrics reducing the chance of it failing on you completely.

Pricing wise I am unsure, it seems reasonable to me.

I was thinking that the pricing was roughly right. I mainly don't want to be paying $200 when I could've paid $150. I'll do this on the weekend and see how that goes; in the meantime, I will try some other suggestions made to me.

Does your interior light come on in the car... ctrl lamp fuse smart lock....

Also the BCM- body control module situated under the dash near where your left knee is in driver's seat is known too cause problems cutting the power to the fuel injectors. Give the dash a bash near your left knee with your palm while trying too start it...."dry solder joints on pcb"


If you got spark it will be fuel related.... Check fuel filter, fuel pump and fuel pressure at rail....

Thanks for the input. I'll try that when I get home and see how it goes.

Someone from Fordforums.com.au also said to try...

Well suggestion with bashing the tank is to see if the fuel pump is dead/dying. Do you hear your fuel pump prime when you turn the key to on? If so, the pump should be okay.

Yeah, she primes. I figured that even if it wasn't getting fuel at all, the aerostat would at least start her if she was still getting spark. Had no such luck though even though I've got spark.

So after trying to get her started by bashing around the BCM an fuel tank, I still got nothing. I took a video of the car trying to turn over and will link that once I get home from the shops.

Here's the video upload. No idea if its going to help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A31CE7R ... e=youtu.be

That's why I stopped turning it over. Haven't tried leaving the ignition on for 30 mins will do that later and will have to check if smartlock is still flashing. If its not, what does that mean?

And the plot thickens, thanks for pointing this out. I've just sat in my car, in the car, with a fully charged battery and after a few minutes, did not see the smart lock flash once. I still have a working interior light though. So hopefully, in thirty minutes time, I'll have a running car again.

Alas no luck. I gave it the full half hour and tried turning it over. Then I had a bright idea of locking the car and checking to see if smartlock flashed up and after a few seconds, there she went.

I'll try the fuel pressure tomorrow and then if thats no good, I'll start replacing components starting with the coil.