Electrical Problems

[F23]

Hello Everyone, (posting here because this is my daily driver, and I need it running yesterday)
My '69 Cougar (identical to '69 Stang for this purpose) has been having these weird spouts of terrible running, popping, stalling, and fluttering for about a minute, then they go away... Weirdest thing. So I hook up a timing light to see if my distributer was screwing with the timing (just installed new one), and I realized that the light wasn't flashing regularly when the episodes occurred. Quickly, I ran and grabbed my volt meter and realized the voltage to the coil was fluctuating in-between 10v and normal voltage. When it normalized, so did the engine problems. I realized when I wiggled the wire, it would have another episode. Figuring a lose connection, I pulled the harness (which is is not to good condition), and replaced all of the wire up to the connector with new wire. Then I cleaned and reconnected, and tried to start again... A few minutes later, same episode. So I wired the coil directly to the battery and it STILL had the same problem! I'm completely lost. What could this possibly be?


Thanks,
F23

[Motorcitydak]

is your alternator charging? Does not sound like it. A running car should be 14 volts

[ford396]

I agree; is your battery voltage dropping from the 14 volt range down to the 10-11 volt range at the battery??

Bob

[MrQuick]

What type of ignition system do you have?

10 volts is normal for a points ignition with a resistor block.

[F23]

Hey guys, I fixed the problem! I replaced the cap and rotor, because they looked like they needed it, the negative battery lead because it looked like it needed it, tightened the ground to the block (very loose and very suspect...), and replaced the voltage regulator because it was sending to much power to the battery. Problem fixed! Don't know what it was, but I'm driving to school and work now, and it's driving better than ever!

Thanks for all the help!



F23