Hate to ask again....crown vic help needed once again....

[rusty ol ranger]

Going on 2 months now trying to get this steaming turd fixed...

A mechanic buddy of mines been pissing with it in his spare time....

Weve replaced intake, maf, fuel pump, filter, and plugs/coils.

99 civilian.

I think we got the original issue figured out...where it was bogging down in the cold.

Now....its got the battery light flickering, a knocking from the bellhousing (im thinking it maybe related....funny i know but youll see why in a minute), idleing high, and it bogs out for a second when put in gear...we also have no refrence voltage at the TPS...

Yesterday i put plugs/coils in it. Fired it up and everything seemed good. I then heard a "pop"...twice...sounded like a starter bendix. After the pops i noticed the engine kinda drop RPM for a minute then come back.

I shut it off and when the engine stopped spinning i heard another....fainter pop. Same noise...just quieter.

Started it again...no problem. As i was sitting there letting it warm up and idle while topping off coolant i heard the knocking noise.....faint at first but getting louder. My first thought was "shit rod" so i shut it off.

Poked around a bit and fired it back up...normal...but knocking. Dropped in in gear noise got much quieter but didnt really have a rythm and definantly coming from bellhousing area. This is when i noticed the battery light faintly flickering....volt gauge was normal. I went to check the battery with my meter and i could get no ground off the battery....or anywhere. I turned on lights, heat, no change. However for some odd reason my lowbeam headlights started working....

Now what im getting at is...could an electrical issue...im guessing a ground....be making the starter do weird shit? Or the starter doing weird shit causing the electric issues?

Anyone know where any of this is grounded?

Could it be a PCM issue?

The vic forums arent much help...i even borrowed my wifes FB and posted in a group....got nothing of value.

So i turn back to my oldest internet friends here.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Bad grounds can cause a ton of different issues. The main grounds off the battery are the first things I replace at suspicion of an electrical problem ever since I had a problem with the Choptop years ago. Doesn’t always fix the problem, but at least I know that isn’t a problem for sure.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they can suffer the same capacitor problems in the ECM as well, might be worth a look.