I have a 95 F-150 with a 5.0 with 155,000 miles on it. While driving, the check engine light starts flashing and it runs like it's missing 2 cylinders. If I shut it down, wait 15 minutes, it starts like nothing was ever wrong. Worse in hot outside temperatures. There seems to be no pattern to when it decides to do this. The other day it was in bumper to bumper traffic. I have changed the ignition control module mounted on the fender twice. After the first time, it ran fine for several weeks with no problems. Then I changed it again when I found that the cap and rotor where in bad shape and it started doing the same thing (flashing cel) and running poorly. Again, wait 15 minutes, it runs like a top. When it is running bad, there is no spark. OBD1 code says 212. What next?

 

Check your cats

 

Explain the no spark? On certain cylinders? Have you determined the cylinders? Obviously if you had no spark it wouldn't run, even bad.

Another question, were the ignition modules you installed for replacements black in color? They should be black.

 

I put a loose plug on a plug wire just to see if there was any spark when this issue was actually happening. Since it is intermittent, it is hard to guess when the issue will happen. When I put a loose plug into the spark plug wire and held it to the engine, there was no spark on the plug.

The module was black.

 

When there is "no spark" there is no spark on any cyllinder. It is like there is no electrical running to the ignition. If I wait 15 minutes, suddenly everything is fine.

 

Sounds exactly what happened to me just the other day. I replaced the and it fixed it.

 

This ^^^

 

Since a new distributor is $55, I am going to just replace the entire thing. Got some great advice on this thread. It has to be the dist pickup, something in the dist. Will let you know how the swap out went.

Thanks all.

 

We'll hold you to it. Also, everyone loves pictures.