TFI trouble

[Baldy]

Well hello everyone, my name is Laszlo and I'm a Wagaholic. :D he he
Last night I ventured out and purchased all the neccesary parts to do the TFI upgrade on my Wag. I installed the cap adapter, cap, rotor, and new wires last night. All was well, she ran noticably better than before, which was to be expected, after all it's time for a tune up.
Now on to the problem...This morning I proceeded to change out the coil....now she will not start. Have 12v at the coil, double checked the wiring, changed out the brain box with my spare...still nothing. What am I missing? Did the search on the topic and noticed that other people seemed to have the same difficulties also. Is there a common problem/solution with this swap? I'm going to put back the old coil and see if that's my problem. Any help/idea/suggestion is appreciated.

Laz

[Tiger Shark]

Is the coil new or used? If it came out of a vehicle at the salvage yard it might be toast.

[chrisnsarah]

There was a bad batch of Ford TFI coils from what I remember. I wouldn't get a stock one from a junkyard one or even one from a dealer. Get one made by a reliable aftermarket manufacturer. Mine is a borg-warner. MSD also makes one.

[Baldy]

Thanks for the suggestions. Got the beast running this morning. I guess the old Wag just wanted to have friday off also, 'cause all it took to start it was a turn of the key???? I'll be checking for loose wires tomorow. ****ed gremlins anyways!
Now onto the good news.....timed it to 10*, gapped the plugs to 45, tuned the carb with a vaccum gauge, and holy s#!t, she runs quite a bit better. Little stronger off the line, little smoother idle, but where it seemed to have made the biggest improvement is in the top end.?? Noticably more power over 80kph, and somehow smoother???? All in all well worth it. Total cost $163 Cndn...new wires, cap, rotor, cap adapter, coil, bracket and wire plug from pick yer part.
I guess it was worth it searching through the 200 posts on this subject. smile.gif

Laz

[xj2fsj]

how do you tune a carb with a vacuum guage?

[jeepbob]

Hook the vac gauge up to manifold vac, start the motor and adj the idle mixture screws until the needle is steady. Simple as that.

[Dome]

I have had tons of coil problems ever since I installed the TFI in my truck. I was told to run a non-resisted wire to the coil (the stock wire is a resistor wire that gives the coil 12v when starting, but ~9v when running) and this thing was burning up my coils. I probably went through 5 before decided to take the non-resistor wire back out. Now other people have installed that non-resitor wire and not had any problems at all... <shrug> :confused:

[TexasJ10]

I'm confused. Should the wire be the resistor wire that is stock or a new none resister wire?

[jeepbob]

With a stock Ford TFI coil you need the stock resistor wire (the one that feeds the coil on the wag now is good). If you use an after market coil you may or may need a resistor wire (ballast resistor) depending on the coil.