Cougar

I think what you are referring to as the coil is really the igniter. The individual coils that Fairtax4me is referring to fit over the plugs. Isn't that the type you have? If so you might be able to swap a couple of them to see if the trouble moves to a different cylinder. You say the engine is running fine so I assume that

Like Loyale 2.7 Turbo talked about, I suggest you replace the PCV valve to see if that corrects the issue.

The Powerprobe is a very nice tool for automotive work and some other things too I suppose. The Fluke that the OP purchased is a more versatile and higher precision meter than the PP is in my opinion. Both testers have good qualities about them. If a person was only doing automotive work then the PP may be his best choice between the two, for most testing purposes. For doing electronic testing I'll take the Fluke.

I think you will find it is some of the best money you ever spent.

You're welcome for the help. You will be real happy with the purchase and most likely will never need another meter again. You should also consider the Fluke TPAK hanging strap kit for the meter. It will allow you to either strap your meter to something or use the magnetic strap to hold the meter. The kit is 35 dollars.

There are a number of good meters on the market today and you really don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good one. Like the others here, when it comes to meters, Fluke is my favorite also. There are a number of models that you can purchase in your price range. I suggest you visit the Fluke website and check the digital multimeters out. The Model 117 may be a good one for you and should be able to do about anything you need to do. Whatever model you decide on I suggest you get an oversized case for it and the magnetic strap to hang the meter on a magnetic surface. A good set of needle point probes will top it off. You won't look back once you have one in your hand.

You can purchase a flexible shaft magnetic retriever tool at a parts store. If a 5mm Allen wrench can go down the hole the tool will have plenty of room to go down the same hole.

Standby, I'll check it out. Okay, we have some confusion here I think. The fuse 5 (15A) I was referring to is not the same as fuse SBF-5, which is a larger fuse. Fuse 5 is the smaller ATM type fuse and is next to the horn relay at the top of a column of 3 fuses. I assume you aren't having engine problems. If you did then fuse SBF-5 would be of concern as it supplies power to a lot of engine related circuits. Power to the turn signals passes through the hazard switch in the OFF position. Try cycling the hazard switch several times to see if that changes the turn signal issue. Do the hazard lights work?

Thanks for the good feedback. Your hot on the trail now it seems. Pretty amazing the engine even fired up. This was a good one for the books.

I would think you should be able to retrieve the tool by using a magnet on a flexible long shaft you can purchase at any good parts store. Even if you can't get it out hopefully it will just lay at the bottom of the fluid pan. I know that wouldn't leave you with a good feeling about doing that even if it didn't hurt anything.

Many cars use the battery warning light circuit to provide power to the exciter inside the alternator. I had to learn this the hard way many years ago while working on a Ford pickup where the alternator wouldn't charge the battery (the warning light was making a bad connection in the bulb socket). The circuit also is used to test the warning lights and makes a connection to ground to turn on those lights when the alternator isn't running. When the engine fires up the alternator field builds up then voltage is back fed on the exciter lead and the current can't flow though the lights, so they turn off and the TEST mode is complete. If the alternator has a problem then the battery warning light will turn on.

You say that you have power getting to the + side of the coil and also saw it on the minus side at one point. Now you say there is no voltage on the minus side. I assume there is power still getting to the + side of the coil and if so this means that your problem is most likely do to a crank sensor inside the disty. Remove the wiring to the minus side of the coil and you should then see voltage on the coil if that is the case.

Leaky intake manifold gaskets are very likely cause of this issue.

The car can run without the cluster installed but the alternator won't be charging the battery, unless the wiring has been modified by someone.

Current to the exciter passes through the warning light which excites the field windings inside the alternator. If there is no current to the exciter for some reason then you get no output from the alternator.

Well I doubt the crank sensor is faulty but perhaps there is some reason it is only allowing one side to function. Well if the wires checked out okay it seems that the ECU is the best suspect at this point, unless repairing the timing belt area changes things.

I know what you mean about the sprocket issue. It does seem remote. After looking at the service data again I think you now need to check some wire connections between the ECU and the igniter, and between the igniter and the coil. The wire colors from the igniter to the ECU are yel/violet and yel/blue and tie to pins 40 and 41 of the ECU. The two wire colors that tie between the igniter and the coil are red/grn and blue. Make sure those wires are making good connection. Connector B22 and E3 tie together between the igniter and the coil so maybe one of the wires is not making good connection there. Just reseating the connector may solve the issue.

Here is the way I see it. The voltage at the ignition switch area tested good but you saw basically no voltage at the fuses which is where the trouble was at. So in my opinion your meter didn't lie to you. We needed to see how the voltage was distributed to the areas you had trouble with and then make the proper checks. Finding the bad spot was pretty simple after that. The LoadPro will be good have on hand. You could also do the same thing with your meter by bridging a 300 ohm resistor across your meter leads. That will put a small load on the circuit to create a voltage drop when you take the voltage measurement.

Power to those fuses comes from the ignition switch via a red wire. Check the wire connection between the switch output and the fuse panel. You're hot on solving the issue now.

I wonder if the ECU is shutting down the fuel system for some reason or the security system is involved.

Okay, I was thinking you had two separate coils. Since that is the case then the crank signal is most likely the best suspect and the reluctor teeth should be inspected if you can't look at the signal waveform coming from the crank sensor. To do that you will need to remove the TB covers and check the crank sprocket. Check to see if any of the teeth for the sensor have been broken off.

Corrosion problems inside the fuse panel has happened to a number of folks, particularly with the panel under the hood.

If you haven't yet checked to see if the coil is getting power and ground to it then that should be done before anything else.

Using the slits on top of the fuses for your meter probe please verify that fuses 1,8,15, and 16 are getting power to them when the ignition is ON. Check both sides of each fuse. There should be 12 volts on both sides if the fuse is good. If the blower works fuse 15 should be okay. If it doesn't work that will be a big clue to work on. Fuse 15 powers a lot of critical things, including the warning lights.

I think fuse 11 in the dash fuse panel provides power to pin 16 of the OBD2 connector. The TL relay is physically located in the dash fuse. It is real clear using the factory diagrams. Power to the TL relay coil comes from the ignition switch via a green wire which ties to other fuses also in the panel. The light switch grounds the other side of the relay coil to turn it on. If power isn't getting to fuses 6, 11, 17, and 18 then check the green wire back to the ignition switch.