Man, sometimes.

[FordTempoFanatic]

I just wish I could depend on my truck as much as my lowly Ford Tempo. So now, the latest and greatest problem is this: despite brand new battery and battery cables, the truck still has trouble starting up. However it starts fine when cold, but after its ran for any period of time it takes longer to start up. This escalates until after, oh say, an hour or two of driving you shut it off and try to start it and it won't start at all. It'll turn over once or twice, and then no more.

Would this be an alternator problem? But that wouldn't explain why it starts fine when I start it cold in the morning.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

Sounds like a heat soaked starter if it is having trouble starting when hot. Also check your timing. If it is off it will also give you hard starting problems when hot.

 

[Skandocious]

Does it crank or just give you a click?

Could be a flakey TFI module. Do you have the distributor mounted TFI? Those ones are very susceptible to heat, which is why they moved it onto the fender in later years.

 

[flareside_thunder]

Yea, that's a dizzy mounted TFI and my guess as well.

 

[FordTempoFanatic]

Well, I'll look into that distributor TFI deal tomorrow morning. It cranks every time. But, the longer the drive the longer it takes to start and the slower it turns over after trying to restart it. This problem gets worse the longer it runs, like I said. It gets to the point where it doesn't turn over fast enough to start, but a quick jump start is all it takes to get it going.

 

[LEB Paul]

Does it have headers on it? My first thought is heat soaked starter as well, but that usually doesn't happen with factory manifolds.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

Usually it does happen more with headers. But my friend's Bronco had the same symptoms with factory manifolds. It's worth looking into.

 

[dustybumpers]

on my 90 with 5.8, I just replaced the tfi this weekend, and replaced the starter, and solnioid recently, and none of these repairs helped. after doing some more checking, I found the ground wire from the battery to the block corroded almost in 2. replaced it, and now truck starts fine. hope this helps