Hey all.

My CPI EA wont run. We have it cranking but not actually running. We have had mechanics out to have a look, and all they can say is either the computer is fried or the coil is fried. Now, we used the mechanic's coil to test it, and nothing changed, put a brand new coil in, and nothing changed until the coil fried.

We are getting spark to the coil, but nothing out (another new coil is in there now).

Now one idea we have is to remove the CPI gear and replace it with the coil, manifold, dizzy etc from a 250xflow. I have, however been told this is illegal?????? Is this true?? What else could I do? I just want my car back on the road.

How can I check to see what the problem is? The car ran fine three days ago, to the point where we were driving it around the block. Then two days ago, it stalled and would not start again.

We had recently changed the oil filter, fuel filter, dizzy cap, rotor etc. Battery is fine, and is now currently running an EF.

Any ideas???

Thanks guys

Put it on a trailer/truck and take it a mechanic.
You obviously don't have the diagnostic ability to fix it, other wise you wouldn't have tried 3 coils.

(TFI) ignition control module is the next thing i would look at bloke. I think they used them with the cpi but I'm no mechanic so maybe if one of the falcon gods on the forum could comment. I had a ea mpi that stopped on me, cam back to the TFI but i wasted a bit of money before it came to my attention, good luck anyways

I am in the process of wrecking a EA manual CPI falcon if your interested I can send you the CPI setup, dizzy and TFI, ECU etc if interested send me a PM

+1 for tfi, i'd put money on it.

yes it is illegal to use gear from an older motor. won't pass emissions.

would probably cost the same to do an mpfi conversion from something newer with a better, more reliable, more legal outcome.

I, myself, did not try three coils.... the mechanic did. I thought I had mentioned that in my OP. So carby is a no go, but I could switch the CPI to an MPI? I do have the motor from a later (by a year) EA Fairmont.

Thankyou for your offer, I shall PM you

OK by TFI, Im guessing you mean the throttle body injection system? Hmm maybe a trip to the wreckers is in order.

if you already have an mpi model there one year newer it would be even easier... maybe (read on)

when i did my mpfi conversion, i ended up having to swap the entire engine harness and most of it back up into the dash. all because of an elusive pink wire in the harness. I can't remember if this wire comes from the tfi or the coil but parts couldn't be swapped over and plug n play because the donor car didn't have the pink wire. i've read that some ea's have it, some don't but it makes interchangability that bit harder.
sorry i can't be more specific i've had a few beers since i did that conversion but with due diligence you should be able to find what i'm talking about on these forums. Or perhaps someone else can shed some more light ?

theoretically, if you have the same harnesses, you could swap out the entire gearbox/motor assembly straight up,along with fuel pump and ecu then install plug in and turn key. As long as that spec engine came out in that car, and it's newer than the body make itself then it's perfectly legal and doesn't need engineering afaik.

Sounds like alot of work but it's a weekend job for most, day job for some depending on how equipped you are to handle the job. Having said that, replacing the tfi would be cheaper. you can loosen the dizzy and spin it round and replace the tfi in the car from memory. i got a cheap one for $30 from ebay for diagnostic purposes.

http://www.norcom.net.au/~bpt/Ford%20Ignition%20Components.htm this is what got me going its about half way down the page you would need to message them to see if it OK with cpi

sorry its only the dizzy that's different I'm pretty sure

any people used the 'dyna mod' tfi ? intriguing.

Sorry for extremely late reply..

Ended up taking fuel rail etc out of the fairmont, and transferring it all to the falcon. Had no problems since, was a fairly straightforward swap.

Took car to tuner after, and car has never ran better.

Currently off road though due to extractors getting too hot, paint burning away and turning some wires crispy.