sick and tired 78 bronco

[bigblue85]

im sick and tired of this bronco i have had so many ideas going through my head about why it starts then stalls....ive heard vacuum...egr.....icu....i have no idea i dont wanna sink as much money as i have to in it i just want it driveable to get it going again! if i replace this icu is this a main common problem for these older fords????? because this bronco sat for a couple years so hopefully this is the problemm

 

[bigblue85]

ok so i have a 1978 bronco with a 351m that i bought that had sat for 3 years witout running. i had the carb rebuilt put new fuel lines on with sending unit, fuel lift pump, cleaned and gapped spark plugs, replaced ignition coil, and threw a new battery in. well i drove it for about 2 weeks then it just died. well i can turn it over and it will fire and run for about 2-3 seconds then stall and it wont hold an idle...well its getting fuel and the only thing i can think of being the problem is the i c u....is that correck?

 

[Agnem]

The only advice I could give you would be to put a diesel in it. Then it would have an engine I understand under the hood that I could advise you on.

 

[subway]

does it have spark when it dies? i had a similar problem with my 79 jeep (they have a ford ignition system on them like your bronco those years) drove me nuts that it would just shut off almost randomly.any of the electronic parts when they get hot can fail when they start to go bad, but if you let them cool down they will work again.

this includes:
the ignition control box
the coil
the pickup coil inside the distributor

i replaced the module first, no go, still did it. then i upgraded to a high output coil, yup still did it. mean while i am letting my jeep cool down on some random road or highway. it ended up being my pickup coil in my distributor, fortunatly i had a spare to try and it never did it again.

i know a-zone can test the control box, make them run it 5-10 times to get it to warm. i used to work there and always ran the test that many times for the above reason.

 

[bigblue85]

well see it does it cold. i havnt got it to warm up since it died on me

 

[Diesel_brad]

So if you are getting fuel and not spark then it is ignition related.

I am one of the last people to tell you to start throwing parts on a vehicle, BUT I would put the "brain" also know as the distributor ignition control Module in. They go bad more often than anything else

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

x2 on the ignition module: it's so common for them to fail that there's a relocation kit for some of them to remote mount them with a heat sink.

It's cheap and easy to change one out.

Good luck.

 

[tknomaj]

well see it does it cold. i havnt got it to warm up since it died on me

You are Missing the point it is not the engines Temp. It is the temp of the electronics. Current flowing causes heat in the items mentioned. Engine heat can add to it but the 12v flowing and a piece with short to ground or open will cause you problem

 

[subway]

yup, i can take only a few seconds on a control box testor to read good then for it to fail. havent baught one in years now that i play with diesels but it was only around $20 then.

at least pull the brain and have it tested, its free at a-zone.

 

[MUDKICKR]

buy yourself another dist, then buy a msd 6a box, follow the instructions in the msd book and wire it up without the factory icm, then enjoy many years of driving without ever worrying about the ign system. i also have the wiring syn. to wire it up. its the only way to make a ford duraspark ign system bulletproof.

 

[bigblue85]

well i recently purchased the icm and it fixed the problem... i tested just visually before i could use the dmm and the sob was melted!