Instant Ignition Death Syndrom

I have been baffled by a problem with my ignitrion and I am not sure what to do, I hope someone could help out with some useful knowledge.


It all started when I drove down a winter trail that was not actualy a trail. It was a spring fed creek!!! so I got about 5 feet onto it.... seen cattails just as fast as my buddys said "Uh oh......cattails!" I sank about 3 and a half feet in less then a second, BAM!. I was like aw shit...looked out my window, couldn't see any tires and water was commin in quick!! The passenger side seat was under in less then 5 mins of being stuck. I tried to drive it out but only managed to put a huge dent in my front bumper from ramming the 5 inch thick ice! It took two fords, one with 35 boggers and the other with swampers to pull me out. when they pulled my out backward, I titalwave went underneith the dash and I believe it saturated the ECU. It ran fine the whole time in the water and while getting pulled out and did not miss a beat. I drove a little way and sat there with the heat cranked, trying to dry it out. About an hour of sitting there, the inside was just starting to dry out a little and then it happens. the same problem I am stuck with to this day. It kills out for no reason and will not start because of no spark. the first thing I replaced was the crank position trigger on top the tranny there....... no go. oh well It looked like it was time to be replaced anyway. I then traced all main power and ignition wires and found some corrosion but not bad. I fixed anything I came across that was questionable. I then took a hairdryer to the engine computer under the dash and that solved the problem for several months. then it started up again, killing every so often, leaving me stranded for about 5mins to 3 hours and then starting fine with no problems for days. replaced the computer- no effect. replaced ignition mod with abouth 5 differnt ones all run the same. I have taken all the wiring connectors apart and dielectict greesed em. Traced everything and even installed MSD ignition to try and solve the problem. any ideas would be appreaciated.

HUM have you tried the coil I got left stranded with a buddy the other day and also the ballest on the driverside fender has been know to play games like that.

Yes, I replaced the stock coil with an MSD High Vib blaster 2 offroad.

Also, I have not tried a differnt balast, but I have wiggled the wires and cleaned all connections and it still is exactly the same.

Here are my thoughts before I go to the garage:


I have been staring at the chilton most of the day, on and off and it looks to me that my problem may very well be the ignition switch. Since I need to replace the lock cylinder and can't find a steering puller, I'm just going to swap in another whole steering colum that I have from the battle wagon. Its even the right color and has the delay wipers! Now they will need a key to steal my truck for a trail ride! Wooooo!

I know this other steering setup is good, so if it still doesn't work then I am only left to believe that the ECU itself is somehow causing, Instant Ignition Death.

anyways, I'm gonna go swap this colum and put a few test lights on to see where the power stops.

when you lose spark, do all your gauges die too?

no... everything stays on.... there is simply no spark signal from the computer

Dielectric grease

When you refer to dielectric grease, this is stuff that insulates and would interfere with transferring an electrical charge. The Oxguard stuff has metal particulates that actually score contacts lightly and improve conductance. Is this what you used? I have been meaning to get some of this stuff for various connections, but no-one seems to know what I am talking about at the electrical supply stores.
If it is really dielectric grease in your connections, this could be contributing to your problem.
Others have posted in here concerning CPS connectors (on the wiring harness side) that are toast and that when they replaced the plug in, their problem went away. An electrical tester would tell you if the plug is bad. Also worth testing the distributor connection too.

Yes, I have swapped distributers. and everything else...

When I replaced my steering colum, I found that some of the termanals connecting the steering colum had a bad case of the green. so i cleaned them up with a light finger nail file, sprayed with WD-40 and now it seams to have more power all together and hasn't killed due to Instant Igniton falure since!

now that I have that figured out, my msd seams to be still acting funny, I plan on soldering all connections and removing any connectors.

"If you smack it, it will run"