My Ma's 1986 Crown Victoria LX

[packman]

More confusion: I checked out the inertia switch and there is the pink wire w/black stripe that is found at the relay and the fuel pump; and there is this orange wire. I'm gonna guess that the inertia switch was replaced at some point; or my Ford shop manual is wrong about the pink w/black stripe wire being the only fuel pump power supply. Also, is the button supposed to be depressed down to complete the circuit? Or is it supposed to be in the up position? In my pic, it's in the down position; and I can't pull it up.

I'm giving some thought to getting another inertia switch; disconnecting the old switch and replacing it with a new one; setting the original fuel pump wire harness aside; and running my own wire harness from the relay, to the new inertia switch, and to the fuel pump. I'll have to strategically cut the fuel pump connector so I can reconnect it if I have to. It'll give me a good excuse to use my Deutsch connector kit.

[86VickyLX]

More confusion: I checked out the inertia switch and there is the pink wire w/black stripe that is found at the relay and the fuel pump; and there is this orange wire. I'm gonna guess that the inertia switch was replaced at some point; or my Ford shop manual is wrong about the pink w/black stripe wire being the only fuel pump power supply. Also, is the button supposed to be depressed down to complete the circuit? Or is it supposed to be in the up position? In my pic, it's in the down position; and I can't pull it up.

I'm giving some thought to getting another inertia switch; disconnecting the old switch and replacing it with a new one; setting the original fuel pump wire harness aside; and running my own wire harness from the relay, to the new inertia switch, and to the fuel pump. I'll have to strategically cut the fuel pump connector so I can reconnect it if I have to. It'll give me a good excuse to use my Deutsch connector kit.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57027[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57028[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57029[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57030[/ATTACH]

Ford has a nasty habit of changing colors of wires between connectors. Listen, if you don't have power at the switch, then stop looking at the switch. The orange wire comes from the front of the car. The pink/black wire goes down to the fuel pump. You have a control issue. ECM not grounding the pump relay or maybe even a bad main ground for the ECU, the lone pigtail that attaches to the negative battery terminal. Again, let me know what your schedule is like and I will try to come and help you with this.

[packman]

Zero progress this past weekend. Sinuses messing with me on Saturday; errands and chores took up most of the time yesterday. I attempted to drill the broken caliper bolt; only to find that none of my drill bits would cut into the material. I am going to get a quality cobalt drill bit and use that. The caliper bolt was too weak to back out of the spindle; but too strong for any of my drill bits

[packman]

Not much of an update. We're getting the garage demolished next week. So I spent the day putting the old summer wheel/tire set up back on the Crown Vic and put her back on the ground. My custom exhaust is a little lower than I would like, but a little higher off the ground than the old BBK setup. It sits above the width of my hand; which I couldn't do with the BBK setup. The good thing (I think) is that the lowest point is more forward (toward the front of the car) than the BBK fox body shorties/H-pipe. If I get the car running; I am curious to see if I will still need ramps to get it in and out of the driveway.

I also suspected that I would not see a drop up front because of the weight difference between the 5.0 and the 5.8; and that is IMO because of the aluminum heads. They were a lot lighter than the E7 heads that came off the 5.8/F4TE. Don't know the weight difference between the E7 heads and E6 heads on the lopo.

After some clearing out of the garage, I spent a little time replacing the coil connector that disintegrated when I removed it a couple months ago. Once everything is cleared out of the backyard, I will put the CV back up on jacks and continue to work on solving its various issues.

[gadget73]

iron factory heads are likely so close to the same weight that you'd not see any difference in ride height.


make the busted caliper bolt glow, let it cool off, it'll come out. It broke because its rusted in, not because its weak. If it won't drill that means its hard, which making it red hot will change. Once its annealed it will drill if needed, but more than fair bet the heat will break it loose.

[packman]

So I got the day off and the yard is cleared out of the garage and all its contents. As such, I am going to spend a little time with the Crown Vic. I was reading the EVTM and did some research and I think I may have found the ECU ground. Is the cylindrical connector in the bottom of this picture the ecu ground? That looks to be the same connector that the fox bodies have. I am going to go out there and get a better look. When I took this picture (posted it back on 6/28/21 on page 19 in this thread), I didn't know what that was; if it is the ecu ground. It was very crusty when I picked it up; and I left it alone as it was cracked all around. I might disconnect it to see what the connector looks like inside. If it breaks, I will replace it with a Deutsch connector.

[packman]

Problem solved.............I hope.

I pulled the connector apart and it disintegrated. The terminals were corroded and very crusty. The ring terminal terminal on the other end was broken and the wire was dangling where my radiator/fan bracket was mounted. Don't know how I missed that. I assembled a Deutsch connector and soldered it into the portion of the wire that was in good shape. Crimped on a new ring terminal and connected it to the battery ground. Turned the key and heard the fuel pump running. I primed the system and checked for leaks. Found nothing visible, but I get a faint whiff of fuel in the engine bay. Felt the fuel lines and injectors for moisture and didn't feel any. Nothing was wet either.

I am going to empty all of the oil drums I accumulated in 2 years and have them ready for the first start. Which might be tomorrow if I get things organized. Hoping for success.

[WagonMan]

If you smell fuel in the engine bay, it could be the vent line or rubber tube that connects to the charcoal canister at the bottom of the passenger side front fender. WagonMan.

[packman]

Still a no go. I don't have power to the starter when I turn the key. I can jump the starter through the "S" terminal on the starter solenoid; where the red wire with blue stripe goes. It appears the solenoid and the starter are working; just doesn't seem to be getting the signal to activate the "S" terminal. I will go into my EVTM and see where the red wire w/blue stripe goes. Even though I already changed out the key cylinder and ignition switch, I checked the rod to see if it moves when I turn the key (it moves). So I ruled that out. I jacked the car back up and took a look at the neutral safety switch and realized that it was never changed out. But I haven't got to that point yet. Going to trace out that red wire w/blue stripe first.

Otherwise, my fuel pump buzzes when I turn the key; the relays click; and the 6AL buzzes in the glove compartment. So at least that is now resolved. I'm making progress, just slow.

[packman]

Yesterday I pulled the red wire w/blue stripe out as far as I could and found no damage in the section that I could see. When it dips behind the engine, I lose track until I go under to look at the neutral safety switch. As such, I replaced the 90* terminal with a ring terminal at the other end of that wire on the starter solenoid. The boot had carbon (or dark cruddy-like substance) on the inside and was very loose on the stud; pretty sure that's not the problem, but I wanted better contact. Still a no go, but I wasn't expecting that to be the fix.

I noticed that my dash lights come on except for the CEL. IIRC, that goes on momentarily when I turn the key. I also noticed that my 6AL isn't buzzing; it's something behind it inside the dash that's making the noise. And since it doesn't have a LED to indicate whether it's on; I will have to put the test light to it next time I check the system. I am currently searching for my OBD I scanner. If I find it, I will see what codes I have.

[Tiggie]

IIRC the engine light stays off until you go to the crank position, so that sounds normal.

If it's only the NSS, it should start with the key on when you cross the solenoid.

Wish I was more help. I know you'd love to get this thing running.

[packman]

I spent the reduced daylight hours replacing the neutral safety switch. Had to take the driver side of the exhaust down; including the header in order to gain access to the NSS. I had to swap the O-ring because the new NSS didn't come with one; or it fell out of the box in transit. My Dad noticed that the old switch pushes in freely; while the new switch clicks when it pushes in. I have no idea if that has any bearing on its operation. Just finished up a few minutes ago; spent a lot of time bolting the header back up. I will connect the exhaust and test the switch next weekend.

[packman]

Not sure if I mentioned this is in any of my posts in this thread; my ecm ground crumbled on me. First the ring terminal at the battery broke off; so I crimped on a new one. I guess in that process the connector on the other end decided that it had enough as well. This was at the end of the Fall; before I ID'd it as the ecm ground. Just thought it was a ground connector of sorts that had seen much better days. I was going to disconnect it to inspect the terminals inside; but it started to crack as I attempted to pull it apart. I decided to leave it alone and think of a solution to that. During the months that followed; I searched out that connector on the various Mustang sites and discovered that it is the ecm ground. So a week ago, I cut it off and replaced it with the 2-terminal Deutsch connector that was in my connector kit. Before I did that I wanted to get a better look at the OE connector. So I made a 2nd attempt to pull it apart. It didn't like that much and fragmented before the terminals separated. I'm thinking that OE dielectric (blue) grease on the terminals was acting more like glue as it took a good bit of effort to pull that connector apart. I showed it to my Dad and he decided to test it. He told me that while it still functioned; it was borderline sketch; and if it was him, he would replace the connector.

And that is what I went ahead and did. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my roll of silver solder that I had been using for 20+ years. So I grabbed the roll of RadioShack solder that I bought back in my car audio dayz. What I failed to realize is the RadioShack solder has no flux in it; so it just laid on top of the splice. To make things worse, it took a lot of heating to get that solder to melting point; and even so, I had to put the solder strand right up against the iron in order to melt it. I basically cold-soldered that splice. I was not going to leave it like that; so I went on Amazon earlier this week and got a single terminal Deutsch connector to replace it. As it sat; it might have operated fine; or at least better than the failed OE ecm ground connector. But.......................

[packman]

...............I could not leave well enough alone. I got my single terminal Deutsch connector this morning. So after my meeting; I got a window of opportunity after the snow squall to measure out the new cable I would need to make that connection; and assemble the connector. After doing that; I was going to cut off the other Deutsch connector and splice this one in; but the wind really kicked up something fierce; and I had to call it off. I will wait until next weekend or whenever to splice the single terminal connector in its place.

[packman]

At my job, there is a group of people who're not required to be at work 5-days/week. And coincidentally, they are usually not there on the nice days; or really bad days either. Lately my crew has been voicing their concerns about having trudge to work everyday and stretch themselves thin with work they were not hired to do; whilst others work from home. So my crew abandoned me after 3PM. My Director had his office door closed all day; so at 4:30PM, I cut out and boogied home. Had 20 minutes of sunlight to get some work done on the Crown Vic. I managed to cut off the 2-pin Deutsch connector that I cold soldered; and replaced it with the single-pin Deutsch connector with the silver flux core solder that I should have used in the first place. Aside from the connector; the whole run is 8AWG cable; which replaced the OE 14AWG wire. I added some extra length to run down the fender and around the front of the battery to the negative post. I'm trying to keep wires and such from floating in the air like Ford originally had it.

When I was done with that, I took my upper control arms down from the garage frame; where they had been hanging to dry from last night's painting session. I'm leaning on getting new lower control arms with brand new ball joints already mounted. I kinda like the idea of starting fresh. I gotta think about this; as I have to go to the junkyard to get spindles anyways.