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It really wasn't until I put my known good ignition module on that I thought it was something to do with the wiring. Before I was swapping first coils and then the ignition module and old coils and finally a known good module/coil set up that I knew something else was wrong. First test was just disconnect the harness and reattach it and it would fire. Next time wiggle the wires at the ignition module without removing the connector and it would fire. I then took a close look at the harness and saw it was only a 3' harness with 5 connectors. Went to the Buick dealer and one left in the country at $200.00. Went to Rock Auto and a Dorman was $85.00. Amazon was $110.00 for the same Dorman. The Dorman was a nice replacement, looked to be of good quality. Only connector that gave me trouble was the crank sensor. It started going on so hard that I had Kendall make the connection as I didn't want to damage the pins on the crank sensor causing more work. Only things I had to remove to get at everything was the engine shroud, serpentine belt, and water pump pully. Front to back time about 45 minutes. Gotta love the 3.8!

Doing it on a Ranger makes no sense but doing it on a Mustang that is supposedly a "high performance car" is just plain crazy. It's got a fiberglass hood and trunk lid, aluminum overhead cam heads, limited slip differential, dual exhaust from front to back and huge roll bars for handling. Then they install a fake oil pressure gauge? Whoever came up with that idea should have been fired.

I ended up having the compressor, dryer and the little valve in the line replaced. As I was sitting on about 10 cans of R-12 I stayed with the r-12. Also had the antifreeze flushed and filled as the radiator is in the way of getting the compressor out. Ready for spring!

I'm no longer able to tell stories about troubleshooting my Reatta but I do have an interesting troubleshooting story about me wasting several hours of my time by making an assumption about how something works. Since I got my GT I always wondered why the oil pressure gauge went up half way to the "normal" position when I started the engine cold or hot and stayed there all the time no matter what the RPM. That seemed odd to me so I temporarily installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge on the engine to make sure I had good oil pressure. The mechanical gauge showed 75 psi at idle on a cold start and then it went down to 35 psi at idle when fully warmed up. Spec in the repair manual is 20-45 psi at 1500 RPM when hot. I had 49 psi at 1500 so oil pressure is great. So, in typical Reatta thinking, I assumed the oil pressure sending unit was bad and replaced it with a new one. Still the gauge in the instrument panel read "normal" all the time. Bad gauge? NO. After reading on the forums I discovered all GTs of similar model years as mine have the same "normal" reading without the needle ever moving just like mine. The gauge isn't a real oil pressure gauge at all. IT'S AN IDIOT LIGHT in the form of a needle on the instrument cluster gauge. The oil pressure sender I replaced is just a switch that closes above 6 psi and tells the needle in the gauge to move to the normal position. Either the gauge reads "0" as it does when the engine is off, or "normal" no matter what the real oil pressure is as long as it's over 6 psi. For me, the oil pressure gauge is the most important gauge on the dash of a car. You can't even make the gauge on my GT work as a normal oil pressure gauge that actually reads pressure by installing a real oil pressure sending unit. It wasn't designed to do that. What were the fools at Ford thinking when they put a oil pressure gauge like this in a Mustang? Even a real idiot light would be better than this stupid gauge design. Rant over 🙂

Mine was leaking at the two rubber seal that the reservoir mounts on. Most people think they are just insulators but there are holes at the end of the legs on the reservoir. If they are cracked one can lose brake fluid that way.

2seater, one place to check for a leak is inside your car, on the drivers side floorboard. My previous Reatta was leaking from where the rod from the brake pedal goes in the back of the Teves unit. Ended up swapping out the whole Teves unit. Never heard of any other members here having this problem, I'm just lucky I guess.

The usual springtime startup ritual, actually two days ago, but a May 1st target. This is the first time I left the battery in the car, in a history dating back more than three decades, and used a battery maintainer instead. The car is stored in an unheated garage/shed six feet in the air on a lift. I still found a couple acorns, chewed, on the vents at the base of the windshield. The varmints must be ninja's 😁 Started and ran perfectly as there was no learning to be done like after a battery disconnect. One item did appear that will bear watching and that is brake fluid level. I have the larger Hydac accumulator purchased from Spinning Wheels several years ago and it does drop the fluid level in the reservoir more than the standard amount. I noted the level was a little low at startup but everything was normal for the first mile or so, then the red brake light came on. Tried the parking brake, that's not it. Checked the brake feel and if the pump ran, all okay, but the level was much lower in the reservoir than I have seen before. I tried rapidly pumping the brakes to deplete the accumulator and the light went out, indicating to me that the low level warning light was the cause for the warning. This has not been a problem in the past but I suspect as the accumulator ages, and greater fluid is required to fill it, the actual fluid level will become more important. From a topped off level to fully pressurized, the fluid level will drop from the top of the level tag to just below it, so the capacity is substantial. I guess it is time to bring out the test rig and estimate the gas precharge and health of the accumulator. Oh joy👍