Hi,
I recently bought this 1995 E250 with the 351 V8 in it.

I have been having an occasional problem with starting.
When this happens it cranks fine but I get no spark.
So far it has always eventully started. 3 cranks, 5 cranks, 10 cranks etc.

A possibly related symtom is that I will be running down the road fine
and the engine will just cut out for a few strokes.
It did this at a slow speed the other day and did not restart itself.
I drifted off the road and started right up like nothing was wrong.

Oddly there are some locations that this seems to happen at more often than others.
AND I think that the van is facing east-northeast at these locations.
Could it be magnetic lines of flux?
A more realistic thing in common is the amount of time engine is off. Like two or three hours. It always starts first thing in the morning. In fact it has never done this at home. I think because we live in a good flux zone

The check engine light is always on but I do not see a port to plug a scanner into. Is there a way to check codes?

So far:
I have replaced distrbuter cap and rotor with new.
I replaced coil pack with a newer one from a junkyard.
No changes so far.

Thanks.

 

95 Was a transition year from OBD I to OBD II. If you can't find a diagnostic plug under the dash to the right of the steering column you are dealing with an OBD I system.
That diagnostic (Test Plug) is located under the hood usually on the passenger side of the engine compartment.
This would be a good time to purchase possibly a Haynes manual from your local auto supply store. It should explain the process to obtain the codes from the computer. Later model vehicles (95) would probably give 3 digit code nos.

 

I finally found the OBD1 plug.
It was on the drivers side and had fallen down underneath the battery
platform. It must have been mounted on the inside of the fender next to
the battery originally. I tie-wired it up there.

Got a Haynes book on Pick-ups and Broncos '80-'96.
Seems like the one for vans has been discontinued.
I have read the codes using the blinking CEL and cleared and re-read.
I get 332 - EGR valve opening not detected.
Looking at what I think is the EGR valve on this 351 I do NOT see
any electrical connections - only vacuum lines. The Haynes book shows testing voltage and
vacuum. This should be on the rear end of the engine right?

The occasional "cranks with no spark" is still occuring.
I think it is always after the van has been driven and then sat for about 2
hours. Once it is in that state it could take 5 minutes or an hour before it
will fire up. Then it runs fine.

Chapter 5 of the book I have done some testing.
When it will not start I get no coil spark. Hooking test light to coil
primary TACH to ground I get continuous light, so there is no break going
on to cause spark.

Next it called for testing resistance from TACH to Ignition Control Module
pin 2. Took a while to find that ICM too. It was not distributor mounted
and was instead on inside of driver fender behind the battery down low.
Had to remove battery to diconnect ant test. How convenient.
Anyhow I got 0 which us under the limit of 5 ohms.

Next is coil primary TACH to ground which should be greater that 12,000 ohms.
I got like 30 I think it was... book says to find and fix that harness short.

It was getting dark and I had to stop.
I think I will re-test before getting into that harness.
Does that make good sense?

Thanks.

 

Haynes book has been worth the money.
Above I was testing the coil primary TACH to ground with the other end still plugged into the ICM so that result was invalid.

I went on to pip stator tests because I was getting a code 211.

I have the remote ICM and it is mounted on inside of drivers side fender, behind battery, down low (how convenient).
I tested for AC voltage at the harness side of the dist-to-harness connector by connecting voltmeter positive to a straight pin stuck into the wire that goes to pin1 and the negative to good metal on dist. base.
(Pin 1 is top right when looking into plug with clip on the left.)
Cranking (with connector plugged) I was getting 20v AC where I should have been getting 3-8~ according to book.
This is when I had the no-spark condition. When I had spark I got 12v at crank dropping to 9v at run.

A lot of people say to replace the ICM first because it is cheaper and then move on to distributor but I didn't think that would have an effect on the PIP signal which is sent out from the dist so I rolled the dice and replaced distributor with rebuilt motorcraft ($100 at local parts store).
I set idle timing by turning dist to right (clockwise) till rpm began fading (advanced). Then I was getting ping at engine load. So I turned it left a tad until no ping.

After that I'm getting the 12-9v AC steadily which is out of book range but engine has started fine for 5 days now.
Runs better than before too! So I am knocking on my wood : )