Cougar

Have you checked to see if the ignitor is bad and causing the problem? Why do you say it is causing a short? Are you blowing out a fuse or measuring a low resistance reading somewhere? If you are measuring voltage and it is going low when you connect up the disty then there may be a faulty connection upstream, which isn't a short problem. It is a bad connection.

You may have a shorted ignitor causing the trouble.

I suggest you clean the ground connections under the hood and the dash area to see if that helps clear the trouble. Cleaning the battery connections is a good thing to do also.

I have repaired some but if you can find another good used one for even 50 dollars you would be ahead just spending the money on it as a spare. The money spent on shipping, repair time, and replacement parts to fix yours will be more than 50 dollars.

Another thing to look for is broken wires where the wiring goes into the rear hatch.

I think the ignition relay is an excellent suggestion. Going over the engine grounds and cleaning them may be a good idea also.

Some folks have found bad connections under the fusible link holder. Also check the connections under the fuse panel in the engine compartment.

Things like the doorlocks, brake lights, and hazard lights tie to unswitched power from the distribution panel under the hood. They are hot all the time. If those areas have a problem then you need to make sure the fusible link connections are ok and the battery post connections are good. I would clean them with a wire brush. It would also be a good thing to clean the battery to chassis ground connection.

Are you sure it isn't the speedo cable doing that?

Good deal. Thanks for the followup.

If the relay is at fault the higher current needed by the headlight would cause a larger voltage drop across the bad relay contacts and turn out the dash lights due to lack of voltage.

Since removing the speedo cable made a difference in the reaction of things I suggest you try bonding suspected ground problem areas with a temporary ground jumper lead and see how things work then. Tie one end of the jumper to the negative battery post or another known good ground point and the other end to the dash area and other points you suspect may be bad. If things work better, then you know you need to fix the grounding to that area. Make sure the battery to chassis ground is clean.

From what you describe I suggest you check the relays for the headlights. It sounds like both of them may have a problem. If I remember correctly the relay for the left side light provides power for the dash lighting also, but it may be the other way around. The relays are under dash above the steering column I think. Two, in a row of four. Tapping on them may show up the trouble if they are bad.

I think the trouble you are having isn't due to a short. It is a bad connection to power or bad grounding possibly. If you think the trouble can't be with the ignition switch because the engine is dieing you are mistaken. Power to the ignition system is provided through the ignition switch. If you haven't checked and cleaned the battery connections already then do that. Clean the battery to chassis ground connection also. If the trouble still persists after that then verify proper power is getting to the fuses in the dash fuse panel when the trouble happens. If there are some fuses that don't have good voltage getting to them check the fusible link connections and the ignition switch connections. I don't see how a bad cluster could cause the kind of troubles you describe. It may be bad, but it won't cause things like the headlights to fail.

It should be near the right rear tire. There may be a connection for it under the rear seat. You could see if appling power directly to it makes it work any better. The pump normally cuts off after a couple of seconds if the engine doesn't start up right away. The fuel pump circuit needs to see firing pulses from the ignition in order to keep running. Replace the fuel filter first before replacing the pump.

What happens to the things you describe having trouble when the ignition switch is in the RUN position and not the ACC mode? Are things working ok then? From what you describe it sounds to me like the trouble may be with the ignition switch area. Before tearing into things I suggest you check voltages getting to the fuses that feed the areas mentioned, first.

It sounds like you are doing a good job on checking things. I assume you have already verified that power is getting to the gauge ok but if you haven't done that yet check it out before you replace the gauge. Look for bad connections inside the cluster also.

Good job. Bad grounding can cause all kinds of strange issues. Thanks for the update.

If you are sure that the trouble is due to a problem with the power to the transmission area then you need to trace back the wiring that ties to the problem area and look for a connection problem.

I just thought of another thing that may help with this issue. Installing a ferrite core may block the RF from getting into the amp if that is what is going on. Installing a split core and wrapping one or two turns of the speaker wires around the core near the connection to the amp may solve the problem. You would have to do that to each speaker having the problem.

The crank position sensor is inside the disty. When it fails it usually means you will get no spark and have a error code generated. The ignitor is mounted on the outside of the disty or near it and that can sometimes cause strange problems with the ignition. The problem you are having sounds fuel related to me also.

Before replacing the pump I would make sure that the power to it is ok and there isn't a problem with the relay contacts.

If the engine stills runs when the MAF is disconnected then I have to wonder if the replacement is defective.

I know exactly the type of noise sound you are talking about. You could let the dealer check it out but since there doesn't appear to be a problem with the way the system works there may not be much they can do. In order to clear that kind of thing they would have to modify the existing design and I doubt they are going to do that. I would guess the RFI is being picked up by the speaker wires, which are acting as an antenna, and is being detected by the amplifier stage. In order to stop that the speaker wires may have to be shielded, if that is the case. Placing a small capacitor (maybe around .001 uf) across the speaker leads may fix the problem also if the wires are picking up the RFI.

Thanks for the update. I'm sure you will be good to go now. Good job.