Smog pump delete and engine bay cleanup 1986 Aussie Bronco

Hi guys, first real posting apart from my introduction.

I recently purchased a 1986 Aussie Bronco fitted with the Ford 5.0 EFI engine which I have to say, is probably the ugliest engine you can ever look at. The amount of rubbish hanging off that engine is atrocious.

Ford Australia also produced a 5.0 engine back in the early 90's, and it is said that if you take the EFI system from an AU Falcon 1991 and toss that onto your USA / Canada engine you will gain nearly 100hp. This tells me that the USA engine is being choked by emissions  and breathing issues. SOmething I will have to address as time goes by.

Anyway, the smog pump is attached and no belt running it. It doesnt seem to pump much air when you spin it, and to get a roadworthy certificate to register the car in my name, I either need to make the system work, or remove it.

Removal seems the best option and I've made a good start today. Before grabbing the spanners I did a lot of net surfing but near everything that I found on the three primary Bronco forums deals with later systems where the solenoids are located differently and / or look different to mine.

I've taken a bunch of pictures along the way, so bear with me and please, chime in with any feedback or guidance that you can offer if this looks familiar.

I'll spread the day over a few posts to break it up.

First job was to remove the pump itself and the metal pipe that runs around to the back of the engine. Then the huge bracket that also is used to hang the alternator. Once that was out of the way and I could actually see where things were going, it all got a lot harder!

There is a big plastic box covering four solenoids, but also lines running into the black box. The Ford part number told me that this was a vacuum reservoir for the EGR system and tracing things through you could see that the solenoids / storage reservoir / EGR vale were all connected. But that there was more to it, and the solenoids controlled vacuum to other areas also.



Once I removed this I had access to the bank of solenoids underneath it.

I followed the vacuum lines to the centre of the inlet manifold and a bunch came together at an odd multi port vacuum connection. Sees the two of importance initially are the green that goes to the top of the EGR valve, and a red that goes to the reservoir tank. I removed these and capped off the vacuum ports. One red goes to a fuel pressure regulator (maybe) on the fuel rail so this one I left alone.

Then it was on to those horrible solenoids.

In a previous time I had a 1982 Bronco, and the area where those solenoids are located was where I put my second battery, it fits nicely in there at the end of the brake master cylinder. (Remember its a RHD car) so now I want to claim back that real estate for a dual battery setup in this car.

So investigating the solenoids there is a common red wire that daisy chains between all four plugs, then four other wires that disappear into the loom and run towards the water pump. I pulled the old tape off and separated those five wires, eventually just cutting the plugs off after tagging the wires in case I need to rejoin or splice them in some way to keep the car happy.

Green vacuum line from solenoids went to this which I think is AGR valve. I'd like to get rid of this but dont know where the wires from its plug go to just yet.



This picture shows the multi pipe joiner that all the vacuum lines were in just near to the solenoids.

I was worried about losing something that needed vacuum and I didnt know if the car runs a MAF sensor, a MAP , sensor or a hot wire system so I went searching.

Again Mr Google to the rescue as I was able to punch in the Ford part number again and verified that it was actually a MAP sensor, hanging on the drivers side guard just near the offending solenoids.



I expected a MAP sensor to have three wires as this one does, but one wire simply loops out to a large red plug, which on my car wasn't connected to anything at all, just laying next to the solenoids?

Anybody care to offer a thought as to what this red plug is? Could it be some sort of Ford technician plug in diagnostic plug? Shown here next to the plug from the MAP sensor clearly showing the looping wire.

So at that point the old girl has me stymied. As much as I'd like to remove more of this wiring, the more I dive in, the more wiring I'm finding.

At the moment I'm a bit stressed about these solenoids. Having removed them and cut the wires, I have five wires that probably go back to the engine ECU that are currently in limbo. I don't know if they need to be terminated, connected, maybe a diode or resister put in place to fool the ECU into thinking all is well and not throw a hissy fit when I try to start it next.

At this point I changed tactics and went looking at the internet again for a solution to mounting the alternator again. A lot of options, some expensive and all in America. Not the best news for us Aussies.

So I grabbed the bog old bracket, had a good look and popped it in the bandsaw. A few minutes later I've smoothed it off and into the sandblaster it goes, half it's original size and weight but looking like it will do a better job the next time around.

It's late evening now and whilst the Wife makes the dinner, I sprayed the 'new' alternator bracket up with some nice hard two pack brake caliper paint. Let that dry off overnight and hopefully it goes well even though we are due for a 5c degree over night temp. 40f to you blokes.

I'll fit that and the alternator tomorrow and maybe by then one of you good fellows may be able to help with these solenoid wires.

Steering box is pretty sloppy so that comes out tomorrow also and off to the Doctor with that. Ford Australia used their own box for the early F Series and Bronco. It's different to yours and I think even the splines are different. I remember a mate back in 1983 ordering a lift kit from USA with a dropped Pitman arm to suit the lift, only to find that it didnt fit as the splines were different. Something I'm going to have to be wary of when it's time to lift mine.

Here's the pile of rubbish removed today, and the poor old girl sitting lonely in the cold workshop tonight.

uzz32soarer wrote

Anybody care to offer a thought as to what this red plug is? Could it be some sort of Ford technician plug in diagnostic plug?

That's exactly what that plug is for. You can use one of these code readers, they're all over Amazon and Ebay (and local classifieds even cheaper).

https://www.innova.com/products/digital-ford-code-reader-1981-1995-3145

Beauty of the Bronco. Love the color.

PS: We always joke around here that the world can't end today, it's already tomorrow in Australia...lol.

Cheers,

Solenoids are used to control many things, mostly emissions related (like fuel vapor canister purge)
While I don't know much about Australian trucks, I do know that they used Cleveland engines rather than Windsor style and the cam timing wasn't 4° retarded.
The 5.0l (302 ci) heads are very desirable and unobtainable here.

You can figure out quite a bit of vacuum and wiring because Ford was actually very good about keeping colour codes consistent across years and models.
Red lines are full manifold vacuum, green used for EGR/emissions, etc...
Wires colours and their stripes are all noted in the EVTM that you can find under Documentation/Electrical/EVTM's/your year...
But this is American production, so I can't say model year changes are in sync with what happened in your country.

We also have a few members down there, as you can see on the members map.
You might reach out to them with questions specific to those RHD models.

Most of our Bronco's and early F Trucks were Clevelands as we used our own locally made engines an heads.

My car is an imported 5.0 Windsor though as Ford Australia didn't have an EFI system until later than 86.

I have a DeTomaso Pantera in the shed and that's even more hybrid. Aussie 4 bolt block that the USA used in NASCAR, USA 4v heads and manifold and then sent off to Italy to be mated to the ZF 5 speed transaxle.

I'm familiar with the Pantera. (they were sold from Mercury dealers here in the U.S.)

But evidently not familiar enough with trucks sold in Aus.  

You look well set up.  I'm sure you'll get it sorted.  

Wow, that Pantera sounds awesome!  I'm not very au fait with them, but my friend Tim Meyer is making aluminum, and soon cast iron, Cleveland blocks and several of the aluminium ones have gone down your way for some of those, and other, cars.

As for the solenoids, I suspect they are the TAB and TAD shown in the page from the 1985 EVTM below.  And having done away with their source of air by removing the pump you obviously no longer need them.  However, what I don't know is what happens when the ECU realizes they aren't there.  I suspect it'll get its knickers in a twist and put you in limp-home mode, meaning lock the timing to base.

I don't know what it takes to fool the ECU, but I'd bet an inductor/coil of the right value would suffice.  Maybe even a resistor.

Thanks Gary

Looking at that diagram I'm going to say that the red wire off fuse link 2 appears correct as it daisy chains all solenoids.

From the other side shall I presume that 362 is yellow, 360 is dark grey or dark green?, 190 is white with a red trace and 200 is white with a black trace?

If the car codes, there is no visual indication on the dash correct?

So the only way to know if it throws a code is to have the Ford code reading gizmo that Rembrant mentioned earlier. I checked ebay Oz but nothing. There are a few in the USA though. I'll just have to find one that the seller will ship to Oz.

Here's my Pantera. Purchased from NJ, imported it and drove the wheels off it then six years ago started a full restoration. This is how she sits today.

That Pantera looks wonderful!  And if you aren't documenting the restoration elsewhere feel free to do so here.  

On the wire colors, the first few pages of the EVTMs provide the decoder ring, as shown below.  So DG is dark green.

But a word of caution: Prior to 1986 the wires had stripes, dots, and hash marks.  In theory in 1986 Ford did away with the dots and hash marks in favor of stripes.  BUT, 1985 was a transition year for sure as Big Blue has some stripes where he should have dots or hash marks, and others have reported the same.  So I cannot say hand-on-heart that 1986 is all stripes.

As for code reading, you don't need a reader, just a test light or an analog voltmeter.  See the Code Reading tab at Documentation/Electrical/Electronic Engine Control (EEC) and then go to the EEC IV tab and then the Code Reading tab.

Midnight here but I'm looking at the code checking and diagnostics for EEC-IV which seems to be my model as the self test out and self test in plugs are exactly what I have laying near those solenoids.

So tomorrow I'll run a test with the solenoids off and see what it throws up. If it has a hissy fit, then I can clear the codes and then jerry rig the solenoids and hide them away until I get rid of the EFI system completely.

I have plans for the old girl to give her back some spark with a few modern touches.

Meanwhile, here's the back end of my 'other' Ford powered beast.

Sounds like a plan, Stan.