Pinto Car Club of America

I was about 11 blocks into my commute into work and Wee Beastie died out of the blue. However about ten minutes of sitting, it started up like nothing was wrong. I made a beeline to the garage and drove the pickup to work.

I was asking around about this at work. The two main opinions are that either the ignition module or the fuel pump is some early death throes. Any further opinions about what's wrong from this group?

I am probably going to get a new module after work.

Wee Beastie is a porthole Pinto with a Merkur XR4Ti engine and electronics. It has a newish Walpro pump, like which some people cuss over at the Turbo Pinto group.

Electrical. Booo. But I hope you find the problem.

    -beegle55

   First things I would try are module, coil, doing the "wiggle" test on the wiring and poss fuel pump. Hopefully its one of those and not some hidden gremlin thats a real pita to find.

So far I've checked the codes after supper and got two pairs of 11's which says the car thinks it's OK.

Will try the ignition module next.

if you got 11s on codes id say its the coil on its way out then. they heat up and one winding will break and loose contact and when it cools back off it regains its contact.

At least I have an excuse to upgrade to one of those MSD or one of those other coooooo-el Hi-Perf coils.

Talked to a genuine Certified Mr. Goodwrench, that has been sometimes involved in this car, last night and he said that there was probably too much rust and resistance in the Pinto so that I to upgrade the ground to the frame and fuel pump. So today I upgraded the ground cable tab to the frame connection by removing the sheet metal screw and drilling out the hole and replacing the fastener with a riv-nut and a machine screw with star washers to break the oxidation and hold tight. Did more of the same with the eye for the fuel pump ground wire.

Tomorrow, I'm going to replace the module and an obvious that I'm overlooking, the fuel filter.

Replaced the fuel filter tonight. The ignition module is going to wait until later because I think the hardest to get to screw has the corners rounded off. I'm going to have to run to the farm to get more tools to remove the distributer to get to it.

Also rechecked the fuel pump fuse. Do you think that a ham-fistedly inserted fuse could have made a spotty connection?  :P