All of the sudden after being very dependable my 1988 Ford F-350 with a 460 won't start after a rain or a heavy dew..It will fire a little but just won't start....You can pop the hood and after 1-2 hours of sunshine and wind it will fire right up and runs fine the rest of the day....I've did a little research and it could be one of a dozen different things...I'm going to put a new coil on today and start from there...I'm sure others on here have had this same problem..
- Thread starter 1206SWMO
- Start date
Matt Thomas
Member
Had an old Intl Scout that was that way. Turned out to be a crack in the distributor cap that was essentially invisible. New cap....no problem.
BANDITFARMER
Well-known Member
Mine use to do the same thing and I found it needed a new dist cap and button and she was good as new. If you pull the cap off I'll bet you find its corroded and on wet days it make it imposable for it to fire but when it dry's out it will. It's worth a look anyway. Bandit
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
My 429 will do that too, change the cap.
John Deere D
Well-known Member
My Ford 429 and 460 both had to have the Dist. Cap changed. After a rain or high humidity the cap was cross firing and not firing .Moisture corroded the contacts in the Cap and on the Rotor.
I'd go cap, rotor and wires. If you don't want to do that right now or want to trouble shoot get yourself a can of WD-40 and next time it balks spray the wires and inside and outside of the cap with WD-40, betcha she'll start then.
Newer cars have really gotten us spoiled- back in the day you'd have to "tune up" a car every 10-12,000 miles which would be points & plugs and adjust timing and carburetor and about 1/2 the time do cap wires and rotor. Thought I was in fat city when I got a new Ford Ranger in '83 and it was only supposed to require plugs every 25,000 miles.
Newer cars have really gotten us spoiled- back in the day you'd have to "tune up" a car every 10-12,000 miles which would be points & plugs and adjust timing and carburetor and about 1/2 the time do cap wires and rotor. Thought I was in fat city when I got a new Ford Ranger in '83 and it was only supposed to require plugs every 25,000 miles.
Russ from MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Bemidji MN
Spray the inside of the distributor cap with WD40, leave it sit a couple of minutes and then wipe out the excess. The WD40 (water displacer) will chase the moisture out of the cracks. As others stated, you may need wires too.
ditchwitch
Well-known Member
Rotor and cap will probably fix that problem.
ditchwitch
Well-known Member
The moister in cap will cause it not to fire. I had a car to do the same thing till i changed the cap and rotor. I didnt change the wires just cap and rotor after that all was good. Yes at night you could tell if a wire was bad by the visual arcing. Just a wire arcing would make the engine miss not fire up.
I think you got your answer, but in case you're still in doubt... here's another vote for new plug wires / new cap and rotor.
I'm not a "throw parts at it" kind of guy - but in this case... it's almost always the first and last place to look with a moisture problem like that.
Yes you can try watching the engine at night if you want to try to rule it out - but I'm guessing you're probably overdue on new wires anyways. So if for some reason this doesn't fix it, it's not a total waste of money.
And while you're pulling those wires - it's a good excuse to change your plugs too.
I'm not a "throw parts at it" kind of guy - but in this case... it's almost always the first and last place to look with a moisture problem like that.
Yes you can try watching the engine at night if you want to try to rule it out - but I'm guessing you're probably overdue on new wires anyways. So if for some reason this doesn't fix it, it's not a total waste of money.
And while you're pulling those wires - it's a good excuse to change your plugs too.
notjustair
Well-known Member
We had a 74 Chevy half ton that did the same. I'm not sure why that thing was so hard on distributor caps, but it cracked each one after six months. It never did die during a rain storm but that was likely because the engine was hot at that point. She never started after an overnight rain, though.
jimg.allentown
Well-known Member
As most others have suggested, the cap, rotor and wires are the most likely cause of the problem. BUT, I have also seen coils fail and start arcing over. Actually had it happen to me once. Went someplace to pick up a part, and when I went to start the car to leave, it would not start. Coil went bad.
My suggestion would be to do a bit of diagnostics.....
Start the engine, open the hood, and take a spray bottle of water and begin spraying around suspected problem areas. The problem should become visible fairly easily.
Some deductive reasoning:
Cap/rotor is prime suspect. That can prevent starting.
Wires are not as likely. After all, there are 9 of them, and only one of them is capable of preventing starting by itself. Likelihood of all 8 of the others failing at once? Not likely at all.
Coil is a definite possibility. Spraying a bit of water around the coil tower will show up a bad coil right away!
Other less likely possibilities are ignition module and PIP sensor (also called stator or pickup coil by GM guys).
My suggestion would be to do a bit of diagnostics.....
Start the engine, open the hood, and take a spray bottle of water and begin spraying around suspected problem areas. The problem should become visible fairly easily.
Some deductive reasoning:
Cap/rotor is prime suspect. That can prevent starting.
Wires are not as likely. After all, there are 9 of them, and only one of them is capable of preventing starting by itself. Likelihood of all 8 of the others failing at once? Not likely at all.
Coil is a definite possibility. Spraying a bit of water around the coil tower will show up a bad coil right away!
Other less likely possibilities are ignition module and PIP sensor (also called stator or pickup coil by GM guys).
Secret Squirrel
Member
I knew a guy that had the same problem. He had installed a sun visor on the cab, and a screw leaked on the door post. Water flooded a connection or something. When it dried it started. They sealed the screw, and the problem was solved.
Thanks for all the input...The reason I started with a coil was that on Saturday morning a mechanic friend was here and he pulled the coil wire out of the distributor while I was cranking it over....We were getting little to no fire from the coil to the distributor...It has fairly new spark plugs and plug wires..After installing the new coil I have fire but it won't start period because now the main fuel pump won't come on...I'll get a new distributor cap and a new main fuel pump tomorrow..The mice have been chewing on things which hasn't helped any..These trucks are a wiring nightmare..
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Very good advice here. Salt water even better.
blue water massey
Well-known Member
1988 ford does that have the white moduale bolted to the side of the distibutor
if it does they are a knowen problem part
was only used for 4 or 5 yrs
every ford I ever had with those modules I had to replace them at sometime
they where very moisture sensitive but you could turn a hose on it if the motor was running and it wouldn't stall
also controls the fuel pump impulse
its the fist thing I would change
always kept one in the glove box and the tool to swap em out as they were also knowen for failing without any warning
if it does they are a knowen problem part
was only used for 4 or 5 yrs
every ford I ever had with those modules I had to replace them at sometime
they where very moisture sensitive but you could turn a hose on it if the motor was running and it wouldn't stall
also controls the fuel pump impulse
its the fist thing I would change
always kept one in the glove box and the tool to swap em out as they were also knowen for failing without any warning
Geo-TH,In
Well-known Member
Your problem isn't unique. If I recall wd40 was invented to displace water. We had a army surplus jeep on the farm. When things wet under the hood, it shorted out the spark. Moisture on the old spark plug wires, moisture under the distributor cab is a killer.
I have a 2007 GMC work truck with a v6, same problem. It's the old school distributor. I have replaced the OEM and 2 Auto Zone distributors and only have 75K on truck. Auto Zone distributors last longer than the OEM and all you have to do is buy one. The zone has a 5 year free replacement, can't say that about delco's.
The last time I had the same problem, I posted here and someone suggested using grease as a sealer around base of cap. So far so good. It all about dew point and relative humidity that cause condensation. Yesterday morning, temp was 67, raining, and I needed to turn defroster on. Well it fixed the problem inside cab, then after window got to 66 degrees, condensation formed on the outside of glass. Condensation has always been a problem in Indiana. Dew is simply condensation on the grass, causing grass mold.
I have a 2007 GMC work truck with a v6, same problem. It's the old school distributor. I have replaced the OEM and 2 Auto Zone distributors and only have 75K on truck. Auto Zone distributors last longer than the OEM and all you have to do is buy one. The zone has a 5 year free replacement, can't say that about delco's.
The last time I had the same problem, I posted here and someone suggested using grease as a sealer around base of cap. So far so good. It all about dew point and relative humidity that cause condensation. Yesterday morning, temp was 67, raining, and I needed to turn defroster on. Well it fixed the problem inside cab, then after window got to 66 degrees, condensation formed on the outside of glass. Condensation has always been a problem in Indiana. Dew is simply condensation on the grass, causing grass mold.
Texasmark1
Well-known Member
Yepper, Water Displacement (product) mix #40. Made for the inside of distributor caps. Guess they finally got the recipe right.
1206 The 1 I had did the same thing same make- same motor- same year. every 3 months a cap rotor and new wires went on it. I got tired of buying repairs and traded it for a F250 diesel.
Believe it or not the dang diesel got to doing the same thing. Traded that off for another brand and havn't had a problem since.
Believe it or not the dang diesel got to doing the same thing. Traded that off for another brand and havn't had a problem since.
Hobo,NC
Well-known Member
- Location
- Sanford, NC
Been wrenching for 41 years and have ran across this a dozen times are so I would replace the cap and rotor in a heart beat. I don't know why but Ford is the worst... Most of the time you can see the moisture in the cap, when you get a cap like this a heavy dew are a night with a light rain will affect it... I think the caps retain moisture like a sponge and wait for more to bleed it out....
Most of the time a cap and rotor will be the fix... About any Ford rotor will fit the dist shaft BUT the rotor must match the cap... I have seen a few times were the wrong rotor cap combination will cause havick (but not a moisture issue) Think big cap big rotor little cap little rotor...
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