89 GRAN MARQUIS cold start problem

Picked up a good 1 here for next to nothing ($350.00 Can.)
It has been running great for a couple of months. The other day it took a bit of crankin but it fired up. Then driving it would die if I hit the throttle but when it was warm it ran great. Yesterday started the same but died on me on the highway (8 min into the drive) I towed it home after 6hrs of sitting and again it fired up at home. I can hear the fuel pump cycling through and I checked the fuel valve (has good volume there) Anybody have any idea. I'm desperate and cheap. (Wife hates this car. Hopefully I can get her something she likes by being cheap on this one.)

If you've got the 5.0 liter engine, it could be the distributor. Ford used an item called the "hall effect sensor" inside the distributor on alot of the 5.0's. It has a sort of an inverted cup inside the distrubutor, with slots along the sides; the sensor detects when there is a "hall" or opening on both sides of the cup, and tells the engine when to send juice to the spark plugs. The distrubutor has to be taken out to replace the sensor; I had a 5.0 Mercury before that had the sensor go out; it was an intermittent problem like you've described, left me on the side of the road, but later (after a tow home) started right up. Check with a reputable shop and ask them about it, there may be a test that can be done. Good luck...

This has happened to me before, but only when I was turning. I had assumed it was because I was just running too much juice, because each time it happened, I had my stereo (dual 1,000 wat 15's, baby), my headlights, CB, and fuzzbuster on, plus it was about -35 out, and I'm sure I wired things in wrong when I hooked up the electronics. But since you had this problem, too, I'm gonna look closer into it. I'll post again if I find out anything.

Hey DJ, just as a friendly suggestion, try not to bring back older posts; last post on this one back in April of last year. (Generally frowned upon)

Might be better off starting a new one with your specific problem; but the hall effect sensor can do some screwy things with reliability.