Went to a mechanic they still don’t know what’s wrong (1984 Bronco 2 v6)

[Vunotbu]

I bought this thing about a month ago and I was driving it and it just stopped working, it was a distributor cap that broke so I got it fixed, but now it doesn’t make it for more than a 20 minute drive without dying, i would drive And it would work fine then i would stop and if I stopped for a while it would shut off and won’t turn back on and if it did it would have almost no power and it would come in little sputs and then die out again ... if I let it sit for a day or two then it cranks up again just fine. It seems to be a problem when the engine gets a little hot but my gauge seems to be working fine

UPDATE:
Now it won’t turn on at all going to replace the tfi module then see if it changes anything

NEW UPDATE:
I replaced the tfi module and it is still stalling out and not starting when it gets a litle bit warm. Any other things it could be? Or did i not put enough silicon heat sink or did i not bolt it in right?

 

[Dirtman]

Bad TFI module.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I second @Dirtman response. I would also find a new mechanic

 

[Dirtman]

Eh, yea it's kinda obvious for us to think of the TFI module because we are ranger people, but it is an obsolete technology that hasn't been used in 3 decades. Many new mechanics that are extremely gifted have never even worked on a car with a distributor...

I was working on a 75' vette a couple days ago and had to remove the distributor. I had a temporary brain fart on how to set the ignition timing after realizing I haven't done it in probably 10 years.

 

[rubydist]

I think what they meant to say was to find an old mechanic...

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Eh, yea it's kinda obvious for us to think of the TFI module because we are ranger people, but it is an obsolete technology that hasn't been used in 3 decades. Many new mechanics that are extremely gifted have never even worked on a car with a distributor...

I was working on a 75' vette a couple days ago and had to remove the distributor. I had a temporary brain fart on how to set the ignition timing after realizing I haven't done it in probably 10 years.

Every vehicle i own has a distributor and 2 have TFI's lol.

The wifes escape not withstanding. Athough ford used TFI's clear to 96/97 to my knowledge...on the F series...literally the most popular vehicle on earth. You would think modern mechanic training would atleast touch on the basics of it.

 

[19Walt93]

An 84 would probably have been Duraspark and the module would be my first guess for quitting when hot. I don't understand "distributor cap broke", though. Distributor caps used to often develop carbon tracks inside and the spark would follow them to ground instead of firing through the wires, a lot of people said cracked instead of tracked. I saw a Chevy with a broken distributor cap once, the customer was convinced gas fumes were travelling through the vacuum advance hose, getting into the distributor, and exploding. I replaced the broken left engine mount to keep the engine from slamming the cap into the firewall and the cap stopped "exploding".
Also, if it cranks without starting and fires or starts when the key is released, the distributor stator is likely at fault.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

An 84 would probably have been Duraspark and the module would be my first guess for quitting when hot. I don't understand "distributor cap broke", though. Distributor caps used to often develop carbon tracks inside and the spark would follow them to ground instead of firing through the wires, a lot of people said cracked instead of tracked. I saw a Chevy with a broken distributor cap once, the customer was convinced gas fumes were travelling through the vacuum advance hose, getting into the distributor, and exploding. I replaced the broken left engine mount to keep the engine from slamming the cap into the firewall and the cap stopped "exploding".
Also, if it cranks without starting and fires or starts when the key is released, the distributor stator is likely at fault.

No an 84 2.8 would have the feedback carb with a TFI ignition. Unless it had been swapped to a duraspark setup

 

[Dirtman]

Every vehicle i own has a distributor and 2 have TFI's lol.

You don't count, you live in a strange 1970s time vortex or something...

 

[19Walt93]

OK, haven't seen one for a while. Early TFI modules were less reliable than late Duraspark modules.

 

[ecgreen]

I think what they meant to say was to find an old mechanic...

So true...9 out of 10 "mechanics" nowadays seem to be completely lost on how a vehicle actually works

 

[Dirtman]

Well modern ignition systems are run by computer software not mechanical gadgets...

It's really not fair to say a mechanic is bad or stupid because they don't have classic car knowledge. Sure an old timey mechanic is gonna be able to fix and diagnose a no spark issue on an ol' 84 ranger, but give that guy a 2021 edge with a no spark issue and see what happens when the problem is in a network connectivity issue over can-bus #42 between module 376 and the PCM system analysis control node due to a bad data packet recieved during a firmware update.

Modern tech has simply moved on so far that mechanics coming out of training today don't bother learning about old stuff. It doesn't make them bad mechanics, it just makes them modern mechanics. When you take an older vehicle for repairs you have to find a mechanic who is old or specializes in classic cars. You don't ask a rocket scientist to fix your tractor.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well modern ignition systems are run by computer software not mechanical gadgets...

It's really not fair to say a mechanic is bad or stupid because they don't have classic car knowledge. Sure an old timey mechanic is gonna be able to fix and diagnose a no spark issue on an ol' 84 ranger, but give that guy a 2021 edge with a no spark issue and see what happens when the problem is in a network connectivity issue over can-bus #42 between module 376 and the PCM system analysis control node due to a bad data packet recieved during a firmware update.

Modern tech has simply moved on so far that mechanics coming out of training today don't bother learning about old stuff. It doesn't make them bad mechanics, it just makes them modern mechanics.

It doesnt make them good mechanics either. A half trained monkey could figure it out with google in less than 5 minutes. If they cant figure out google can-bus is way out of their league.

We are not talking about magnetos. TFI was used on every gas fullsize ford until '96. There are still millions of them on the road, i see them everyday. Somebody somewhere works on them and it isnt just guys with shady trees.

 

[19Walt93]

"A half trained monkey could figure it out with google in less than 5 minutes. If they cant figure out google can-bus is way out of their league." That's a cheap shot, google can come up with all kinds of info that may or may not fix the problem. Everyone's job looks easy from the outside. I was a mechanic from 72-82 and then a service manager until retirement in 17, my crew could fix anything but they'd have been lost on the stuff I used to work on. I was involved with Fords for all those years but I'd have been more lost trying to fix most of the current stuff. I did at least one valve job a week for years, the new management was going to throw away the valve seat grinding equipment because it hadn't been used in over a decade. One of my old techs snagged it for me and I used it on the 351 in my Ranger. I rebuilt the chassis on a 35 Ford pickup for a friend and it was a learning experience, mechanical brakes, transverse leaf springs, enclosed drive shaft and a banjo rear end, king pins and worm gear steering box, headlight switch mounted on the bottom of the steering box and controlled by a shaft running down from the horn button. That 35 was as close to my experience in the 70's as your 84 is to a tech in 2020. You need a mechanic old enough to have seen an 84 before it was a "classic".

 

[Vunotbu]

And also the air temperature flow sensor was just dangling out not plugged into anything could this be part of the problem?