85lebaront2

It was also used on the 1985-86 302 EFI engines for the injection system harness.

Darth's steering isn't bad at all (a) he's a one ton, 22 ft long dual rear wheel load hauler (b) still has the original king pins, just greased regularly. The second fact is why there is a slight tendency to wander due to friction. Biggest issue is very few shops can or will correctly set these trucks up, especially the heavier ones with king pins as the only way to change the caster and camber is to actually bend the twin I-beams. Properly done they will hold a setting indefinitely, Darth's last full alignment was in 1994 not long after I bought him. Proof is the front tires wear dead even.

The friend I helped with a 1956 Dodge used a Mustang II setup, and said he wished he had gone with a Crown Vic swap. The Mustang II front suspension was pretty well overloaded with a Mopar 360 sitting on it.

Ok, since this will also benefit those with early EFI systems (TFI module mounted to distributor) I will document the evolution of this project. Owner gave me a bad module to delve into today. I cleaned it off and opened it. Outer cover is plastic and snaps on so a little careful prying got it removed. This is what is inside (I may open a remote one for comparison). Pins are labeled based on Ford information and checking with my Fluke 75. After unsoldering and clearing as much goop as possible then prying the metal heat sink plate off the plastic housing, again, pins are labeled. Here is the finished modification, power, ground and PIP out are still used, SPOUT, Start and Coil - are no longer needed. Harness will be used with another piece to connect to a remote mount module on a heat sink. Rear heat sink plate with any connecting wires removed will be glued back on, and the front cover snapped back in place. The dead module has been turned into a distributor pickup plug.

I was trying to find the picture last night, but wasn't having any luck and it was already after 11 PM here.

No, Gary, they didn't, there was some confusion in there. On the reservoir/tank selector valve, the ports for each tank are paired, from the picture it would be top two to one tank, bottom two to the second tank. Front pair, large to Bosch pump on the frame, small is return from engine. This system was used on all EFI trucks (Broncos only have one tank) through 1989. 1990 on use the FDM and many trucks from that era will have the recall check valves installed.

I do have a question, where would the reservoir be on a 1990 F250 with a 7.5L engine. All I found were fuel lines from the tanks to the filter and then the engine. There are a pair of tees outboard of the forward tank that all the lines go through. There was indeed a recall, TSB 01M05 and is on this site here: https://www.garysgaragemahal.com/fuel-cross-flow.html

The only steering oddity I have found is the Crew Cab F350s, the tie rods are peculiar to those applications and I do not know about any other parts, steering knuckles primarily. I know Darth will turn inside of a 1994 Super Cab 4WD F250, drove my BIL nuts the first time I did that. I know the inside front wheel will go nearly 90° to the frame.

I can build that with parts I have, thanks!

The owner of the shop that does my inspections has an older (glass headlights) Ranger with the 2.9L V6. He has the common issue with the older Ford EFI engines. His TFI module overheats and shuts down. He has ordered a relocation kit but has yet to see it. My questions are (a) is there a plug to replace the original TFI module for the distributor? (b) if (a) is an unknown, what Cologne V6 distributors for a remote TFI module will fit? Once the pickup issue is solved, I have enough parts to build the remainder for him as the 1994 Taurus used a remote TFI module. Which brings up the obvious question, will a 3.0L Taurus distributor fit a 2.9L engine? Thanks for any help on this.

No problem, if you do I have more pictures, I just chose the most applicable ones.

Ok, dash has to be first as there is no way to mount the Aeronose stub column to an older truck. I will start with the top portion. On the Bricknose and Aeronose cabs, the top of the dash is attached with 4 self tapping screws into plastic cups. These cups are in slots that allow side to side movement. The dash is located by a plastic pin that goes next to the left of center mounting point. This supports the dash across the top. When doing this you will find that the VIN location will be covered by the dash top. Two options, leave it where it is and cut the dash leaving a gap to the left of the original location or relocate the VIN tab to the left where the later trucks have it. I did this on Darth. Next is the left end support structure, here is a picture on a 1995 F450 Dash, column and HVAC system Jim (ArdWrknTrk) obtained for me. The large aluminum casting supports the dash left end, steering column and parking brake pedal assembly. Ford says to R&R the dash with this and the column as an assembly and it is installed that way on the assembly line. The casting is attached to the left side of the cab with four M10X1.5 bolts, two into the door post and two into a bracket welded to the inner wall of the cab (about where the air vent would go). I was able to take two M10X1.5 hex nuts, weld them to a plate and insert it inside the left door post The forward portions I made from some fairly stiff flat bar with nuts welded on. Here are pictures of the original (measured and taken at Pick-n-Pull in Virginia Beach). This gave me the needed location for the dash left end, steering column and parking brake pedal assembly. The right end was much simpler, the dash is actually made of two components, the air ducts and the skin. The skin attaches to the air ducts with a load of self tapping screws and is only directly attached to the body at the top with the previously mentioned four screws. The duct assembly has a small tab on the right side, originally a plastic one, several suppliers provide a metal service part as did Ford for when it breaks off. This is attached to the right door post with an M6X1.0 bolt and clip nut. There are two braces on the bottom, one near the center, the other under the HVAC case, this one is very flimsy and I never installed it, other is angled near the center from the back of the engine "hump" area to the bottom of the dash. It is a roughly 1/2" OD tube with the ends flattened and a hole at the firewall end and a clip nut at the dash end. Wiring, all the inside cab wiring is in the dash except the power windows and locks and dome light. There are two rectangular plugs on the left side, a 76 pin for the front harness and a 24 pin for the rear chassis harness. The EEC is mounted to the far left against the left inner wall, so you end up with three plugs through the firewall. I opted for fabricating a new piece from a rear access cover off a Kenmore washer, then cutting the firewall and mounting this plate with self drilling and tapping hex head screws. This did away with dealing with the stamped portion where the parking brake mounted. Steering column mounts to the inner portion of the aluminum casting and is attached with four M8X1.25 studs, nuts and washers. AT shifter is a cable, MT is on the floor only and no interlock. Steering shaft has two universals, one at the gear and one at the bottom of the stub column. The collapsible portion is the shaft between these which has a bushing/seal where it goes through the firewall. If you need more, let me know.

I will collect the pictures of what I did. First to go from a bullnose dash to even a bricknose requires a bit of work due to the completely different mounting system.

To get to the governor, remove the driveshaft from the transmission. If you have a 4WD, then both driveshafts and the transfer case need to come out. After you have either the extension (tailshaft) housing or the transfer case adapter left on the transmission, you will need to remove the nuts from the bottom of the crossmember. Support the transmission, a floor jack with a piece of 1/2" (13mm) plywood big enough to spread the load on the pan will be needed to raise the back of the transmission off the crossmember. This is where a 4WD is a little easier. On a 2WD there are two gusset plates on each end of the crossmember, there are two bolts from the top of the frame through the gussets. These do not need to be removed, even the nuts do not nee to come off, just loosened to the point the gussets can be lifted off the crossmember. On a 4WD the driver's side comes up on the outside of the frame rail and has two through bolts, passenger side is the same as the 2WD. The passenger side bolts will be a pain due to the exhaust pipe(s). With the gussets free, there are two bolts, one on each end of the crossmember, with them removed, and everything clear (lifted off) the crossmember will either drop (4WD) or can be twisted back on one side so it drops clear (2WD). Now that you have an unobstructed view, lower the transmission for better access and if a 2WD remove the speedometer drive from the extension housing, take out the bolts holding the adapter or extension housing to the rear of the main case. You may need to remove the mount form the adapter or extension to reach one or more of the lower bolts. With the output shaft exposed, if there is a speedometer drive gear on the shaft, it will need to be removed by depressing the retainer clip and sliding the plastic gear off the shaft. Now, there are 4 bolts holding the governor to the parking lock gear, remove them and slide the governor off the shaft. There should be a small cone shaped strainer in the feed hole (a) don't lose it but (b) take it out and check for crap on the outside and clean it. FWIW, I agree with checking the soft vacuum lines and modulator. If the truck is using ATF and smoking, that is a sign of a bad modulator.

I hope so, the fuse box occupies the area on the other side so that was the best location.

Thank you! Here's what I did with the panel dimmer/courtesy light control:

My Chrysler K-car convertible has KYBs on it.

I have Monroe gas magnums on Darth, originally fronts were Monroe and rears were Sears made by Monroe as no one had the Monroes in stock. When they wore out Sears could no longer supply them so after going round and round over 3 days, they called Advance and had them send over the correct replacements. The DRW ones are now different form the SRW version. (shameless plug, part of my pension comes from them, left over from the Tenneco days at NNS).

Here is what the center stack looks like with the CD changer added. I have to make a filler for under it as the trim piece came from a Chrysler 300M (FWD) and is curved in two directions, one to match the front of the CD changer and the other where it rolled under as the 300M dash doesn't go all the way to the console. I will also have to build a rear support as the CD changer is pretty heavy and (a) bouncing will cause issues with it and (b) the two small plastic tabs in front won't hold long like that. Radio is a snug slip fit at the back of it's slot so no rear support is used.

What it does is do a system check, runs the CD stack and the player mechanism up and down to determine everything is functional. While it is doing that the load/eject and ready lights flash. When it is finished the ready light stays illuminated and the others go out. Load eject will return the ready light to blinking as it moves into position. Once in position the ready light is steady and the selected slot is also illuminated. When you insert the CD it pulls it in and loads it. The radios for it have on memory button 1 CD and an up arrow and memory 5 CD and a down arrow. you can also step up or down on tracks on the CD. As far as hitting it with the shifter, not much chance of that it is below the knob.

Window issue resolved as being way out of adjustment. On to the next item. I found a fellow who is scrapping a 1989 LeBaron convertible. Body is totally different, but, I had him send me the heated rear window glass and found that it may work. He also sent me the switch panel from the center console. This contains 4 power window switches, top switch and rear window defroster switch. Unfortunately it is not the same as the coupe in being wider. The console is supposed to be delivered today along with the remotely located rear window defroster relay. In discovering this, I determined that the nice little panel I made will be somewhat redundant so I looked at what I had in it and a solution for those items. They were (a) panel dimmer control and courtesy lights (b) hazard flasher switch © rear window defroster switch and relay (d) 12v power point/lighter. Power point location will be determined once the console is here, rear window defroster remote relay is enroute, Hazard flasher and turn signals have been rewired to emulate a 2001 system, but keeping the 1989 turn signal and hazard flasher to control it and I have a Novita LM470 LED flasher from Diode Dynamics to work the lights (the standard one I had with the 2001 Sebring combination switch will work with resistors or incandescent bulbs) and the panel dimmer/courtesy light control is now mounted in the lower driver's side dash panel. With those relocated, I now have a place (where they used to sit) that will be open. The 1989 cars had a pull-out cup holder, but the 1986 shifter sits too close to there so you would need to empty it to go forward of neutral (Reverse and Park) so it will leave me and empty spot under the radio. I am working on a mount for one of these: A four disc CD player. They are a bit strange in loading/unloading as the mode and slot have to be selected in the control head (radio). With no CD player present the buttons do nothing, but once one is detected the functions work. I have two of these, one I had previously verified as working, the other is still an unknown and looks like it might have been wet at some point.

What it sounds like you need is the cover for the automatic transmission torque converter nuts access.

I will throw a suggestion out on these and some of the later systems. Ford used (as shown) some very strange relay configurations. Their function is the same as the pretty much standard Bosch 5 pin relays. Before I would put a Chinese relay of indeterminate quality in my vehicle, I think I would buy a relay kit (fog lights maybe) that uses a standard Bosch cube relay. Ford went to these in the later trucks with the PDC. These are some common (I shared some pictures a while back of Ford, Chrysler and GM relays, all had proprietary numbers but were interchangeable). I have several boxes of the various relays as they are so common and rarely do I find a bad used one from a junkyard. Of the Ford ones I had, two brown skirt and one green skirt, they were all bad. If you need one for underhood where the skirt is needed as a shield, Chrysler minivans in the 90s had a row of them on the left side underhood on a long bracket. These also feature a lock tab on the socket for some applications. Some will be 4 pin, which will work fine, the normally closed contact (Bosch 87a) is not on these, but the normally open (Bosch 87) is there and that is what turns on.

I know I have your email and your cell.

I have the same files and I believe they will run as intended on his site. I have not posted them anywhere due to concern (a) that he owns the work and (b) don't want to anger Ford. Jim, the 160 amp 3G alternator on Darth along with the cable is one of his I bought from a fellow in CA who needed the money.