95 5.0 no start

[evildriver]

My dads buddy had me come over and look at his car. It's a 95 5.0 5spd with bolt on's and heads. It's kinda throwing me off. He said he was driving it and all of a sudden it kinda spit and sputtered and backfired and it died. He had it towed home. The fuel pump does come on. He also changed the fuel filter.
The coil sends spark to the cap, but on some of the little towers on the cap there is no spark coming out from the cap to the wire. I thought it was the cap maybe, so I took my cap and rotor off my car and put them on his car. Still no start.
I also put a noid light on two of the inj. and they did light up and blink. Not very bright though. But I checked them and they get 12v.
It almost starts on starting fluid. I wanted to check fuel pressure but the guage on the fuel rail doesn't work and its setup so I couldn't put my fuel pressure tool gauge on it.
Its seems like its not getting fuel, but some cyl. aren't getting spark either. And it's hard to work on it when I feel like there is a audience watching me. My dad and him were watching me and giving suggestions the whole time.
Sorry for the novel. Any input would help. Thanks

[PaulFiveOh]

ECU Failure maybe?

[Goober]

Did it jump out of time? Is the hold down bolt for the dizzy tight?

[evildriver]

Yeah the dist. is tight. I noticed though that his dist. is turned more clockwise than mine is. Mine is advanced to 18 degrees. I don't know about his.
I thought he might have a lose or damaged ground some where for the ecu, but I haven't confirmed that.

[facemelter71]

My 86 did that.I replaced the dist' and coil.My neigbors 94 also did that.Try unplugging the mass air meter and see if it will start.

[stang5slow]

my 95 5.0 did basically the same thing, and i changed the ignition modual, 40 bucks i think from local auto parts store, (o'reielly) and it fired right up, you can also have it checked too, its right under your MAF sensor

[mrstang-gt-46]

yes ign mod or coil

[SN95N/A]

My 95 did the exact thing I had to go get a new gear pressed on the bottom of my distributor.

[evildriver]

All right I checked the PIP signal out of the dist. and found it to be not right. I also took the ign. module to a store to have it checked. It was fine. I told him it was the pickup coil then. So the other day he started taking the pickup coil off. Well he noticed little metal shavings in the dist. that I missed. It seems that the pickup is loose inside the dist. allowing the shutter wheel to hit it and put shaving on the pickup. The little hold down is tight though. Is there a bushing in the center that can get worn?

[92coupe]

Sounds like it's time for a new dist.

[graysonracin]

+1 on a new dizzy!:bigthumb

[stang5slow]

yup, i hear motorcraft factory dis's are good for going bad, go with msd, little more exspensive, but better in the long run