1990 Super Coupe Gettin a little fussy

SCEnthuzy

Registered User
First off I would like to say hello to all! I am actually a extreme mustang enthusiast and have been born and raised blue oval! (; But the 1993 lx 2.3 pony just was not cutting it anymore, so I searched for something bigger and I found out about the super coupes and I fell in love!!!

But now to my question sorry about the rambling I am just so
Eager to learn about this cars and share the passion! Anyway yesterday I purchased a 1990 white SC interior like new engine bay spotless, all fluids checked out shes a clean bird with 105,000! Well here's where the story begins
I purchased this bird from marysville Washington and I drove it back from Tacoma Washington that's a 100 miles and it just purred right along no issues whatsoever!!! Now from what I've heard the guy who previously owned it was a ford general parts manager so they went through and replaced the common problems on these SC 3.8s he said he put a new harmonic balancer hoses etc! Now it had been sitting under a hangover roof for about a year so it could have been old gas I'm not sure!

Anyway when I got back I parked it on a hill like I normally do with the 2.3 mustang, well after that she was very fusy it did not want to start and it started showing some weird symptoms

1.the gauges would die (meaning the car was running but tach nor speedometer worked)

2. It would start sputtering and shaking like it wants to die, if
You give it some gas it would clear up sometimes and the
Gauges would come back Bizarre?

Now there are these two clips with wires each side it sits on top of the A/C one side of those wires is shrink wrapped as it seems and if
I clench all four or five of those wires I can kill it!

So it could also be the fuel filter maybe clogged with old gas?

I'm not sure I am just disappointed because she ran amazing for 100miles from marysville to Tacoma, (oh I did put in supreme plus 92)

I'm not asking anyone to spoon feed me I'm just trying to meet SC experts and learn more about this awesome machine!!! And learn it properly and pass it on!

Thanks, Zach
 
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Sounds like a camshaft sensor with the guage issues or possibly the dis module which sits over the top of the ac compressor if the right grease wasnt installed on the bottom of it these issues can surface. Use the search engine on the site for camshaft sensor and dis module and it will pull up lots of info
 
1.. Check your battery cables. Go through and clean up and tighten all of the grounds. Clean the ends at the battery post, the other end of the negative cable down by the driver side motor mount, and the smaller ground cables that come off the negative battery cable which are the grounds for the ECM. Also make sure these are all tight. take them all off clean them up with a wire brush then tighten them all back up. When the grounds get corroded on these cars you can chase gremlins for a while.

If that fails then check your fuel pressure.
 
Sounds like a camshaft sensor with the guage issues or possibly the dis module which sits over the top of the ac compressor if the right grease wasnt installed on the bottom of it these issues can surface. Use the search engine on the site for camshaft sensor and dis module and it will pull up lots of info

Do the cam sensors control spark? I thought they controlled fuel.
 
Thank you for the help, I just got a chance to toy with it again because I was in eastern Washington for a couple of days. It started fine an ran real good I took her out got on it and at about 80 the tach dropped but it didn't fuss. It seems fine when it's cold, when I got back and parked it it showed signs of the fussiness it had shown before but mildly (tach dieing, minimal stutter) like I said this seems to happen when it's warm, so should I disconnect cam sensor and run it see what happens?

Oh Also I have no Check engine light what so ever
 
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Really, when I bought it I was told it was a brand new motor craft batt? I'll check the grounds where exactly is the negative ground cable located on the block? I'll try it with a diff battery, thanks
 
Actually there a few ground straps (on my 03 mustang). One in located near the starter, another is on the front of the engine that connects to the drv side fender well, and the other is up near the bus connector located on the pass side fire wall.

Your 90' sc is more than likelly different but this should give you a good idea where to check. The mian one is the one located under the battery.
 
I had the same problem with the gauges dying and sputtering. Your battery is toast. I'm betting the battery has an internal short.
Alan
 
Thank you guys for all the helpful suggestions its been a long couple weeks with my SC Bird. So on 7/30/12 I took it to pep boys for them to fix it, and just as I thought they determined it was a bad cam sensor and bad DIS, except it took them 6 hours to figure that out and it took me 10 minutes to ask my good buddy's here, hmm ASE certified ha yea right pep boys, anyway they fixed it and it ran good for about 7 days it started getting fussy again today. First thing happened was the tach completely died, no wire jiggling will get it to move this time, and now it will crank but it wont seem to start until the 4th or 5th time and it just is very stubborn, it sounds like it misfires while in park but is fine when you drop it into drive, oh and the fan does not turn on at all i find it odd that pep boys missed that, when you unplug the temp sensor near the DIS the fan runs but otherwise the fan will not come on. Sounds like temp sensor to me. Anyway AAA will be towing it to pepboys tomorow, here is a writeup of what they did let me know what you think!

And really thanks guys, I love this bird and when it runs good it runs good I am trying to not loose hope
 

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I can't read that bill very well but would suggest two things. If the crankshaft sensor hasn't been replaced then start with that. I would also recommend using a ford branded dis module as opposed to the 3rd party that pep boys probably used. Many folks on here have had issues with the 3rd party brand only to find all of the problems were resolved with the ford branded dis module.
 
I can't read that bill very well but would suggest two things. If the crankshaft sensor hasn't been replaced then start with that. I would also recommend using a ford branded dis module as opposed to the 3rd party that pep boys probably used. Many folks on here have had issues with the 3rd party brand only to find all of the problems were resolved with the ford branded dis module.

Thank you 90sc35thann, just click on the photo and then click again it should allow you to zoom ;)

Yes I am aware of that ;) I priced DIS's at ford for about 130 so if tomorrow at pep boys does not work then I will get my money back and head to ford
 
Thank you 90sc35thann, just click on the photo and then click again it should allow you to zoom ;)

Yes I am aware of that ;) I priced DIS's at ford for about 130 so if tomorrow at pep boys does not work then I will get my money back and head to ford

Ok. I just read the receipt. Yes get a dis module from ford. Remember to use the thermal grease on the back so that you get proper heat transfer.
 
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