My Ma's 1986 Crown Victoria LX

[packman]

Last weekend I got a little time with this car. I looked to confirm that the known grounds are connected. There were 2 grounds that had ring terminals; those I had connected to the rear of the cylinder heads; with a copper strap going down from there to the engine block. My battery to core support ground is hooked up. The ECM ground was replaced last month. Those are the only ground connections that I know of; aside from the added accessories.

So when I turned the key I had dash lights and all that; but my fuel pump no longer runs. I had it running late last year before the original ECM ground connector failed. I will test the new ECM ground connector next month; after I get done with a house project. Also can't engage the starter with the key (still a problem). I think what I will do next month is confirm that my mass air wiring is correct; and go from there. That is the plan for this car.

[gadget73]

verify you have ECM power. Without that you get no fuel pump power. Not impossible all of this is an open fuse link. Some of them are shared, and I don't know offhand if the crank power circuit happens to be on the same link as the ECM or fuel pump power.

[packman]

I got home with some time to spare. So I went to work replacing the brake light switch. I had forgotten how much of a pain it is to remove from the brake pedal knub. I managed to lose the nylon washer that goes between the booster hoop and brake pedal switch mount. I hope this doesn't kill it quickly. I was trying to jam it back into the brake switch mount and through the brake pedal knub. Freakin thing shot off somewhere under the dash. I'll deal with that later.

Still had some light; so I ID'd the ECM power wire and tested it behind the fuses; the test light lit up both times; so at least power is making it out that far. I noticed my new ECM ground connector kind of rattles. And my solder joint is bent. Since I revamped the 2-pin Deutsch connector; I'm going to test the new connector; and if it fails; I will replace it with the 2-pin connector. Hopefully that will solve some of the ECM woes; or get me closer to solving the problem(s).

Also; whilst testing the ECM power wire; I followed it up to the firewall and among the wires in that harness, I saw a severed Yellow w/red (or orange) stripe wire. It's a clean cut and looks like it wasn't stretched. I am attempting to find a wire of that color pattern in the EVTM. A shot in the dark here; but if any of you are familiar with this wire; please do tell

[packman]

Since the weather was much better than forecasted; I decided to replace the ECM ground connector once again. This time I spliced further up the harness where the 5 ground wires merge into 1 wire. There was a mass of hardened duct or electrical tape covering the merge. I spent 20 minutes cutting and breaking that tape apart. I found that somebody (Ford or some mechanic?) crimped that all into one 14AWG wire. Before I did this, I noted that is where the wire was bent and fairly flexible. In any event, I removed the single-pin Deutsch connector and put the 2-pin Deutsch connector back in its place. I spliced 3 of the ground wires to one pin; and the other 2 ground wires to the other pin. Everything seems to be solid. I don't think this was the problem; but I feel better having done that. I was going to test it out; but I decided to get teh battery charger and cover the CV back up along with the charger; and let it slowly charge overnight.

A few questions: Was the old [crimp] joint a factory crimp; or something done by a mechanic? I cut the crimped section off and snapped a pic of it. What process or tool does these kinds of crimps? There was another crimp like that on the fuel injector harness when I replaced the connectors.

[packman]

I powered up the system yesterday and still had the same problem. I am going to test the ECM relay next time I am out there. And maybe have my Dad show me how to do a continuity test on the ground connector as well.

[86VickyLX]

Since the weather was much better than forecasted; I decided to replace the ECM ground connector once again. This time I spliced further up the harness where the 5 ground wires merge into 1 wire. There was a mass of hardened duct or electrical tape covering the merge. I spent 20 minutes cutting and breaking that tape apart. I found that somebody (Ford or some mechanic?) crimped that all into one 14AWG wire. Before I did this, I noted that is where the wire was bent and fairly flexible. In any event, I removed the single-pin Deutsch connector and put the 2-pin Deutsch connector back in its place. I spliced 3 of the ground wires to one pin; and the other 2 ground wires to the other pin. Everything seems to be solid. I don't think this was the problem; but I feel better having done that. I was going to test it out; but I decided to get teh battery charger and cover the CV back up along with the charger; and let it slowly charge overnight.

A few questions: Was the old [crimp] joint a factory crimp; or something done by a mechanic? I cut the crimped section off and snapped a pic of it. What process or tool does these kinds of crimps? There was another crimp like that on the fuel injector harness when I replaced the connectors.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57590[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57591[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57592[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]57593[/ATTACH]

That's a factory 80s ford splice. The 90s were more refined with heatshrink tubing with adhesive rather than a piece of metal hammered around wires and then wrapped with cloth tape.

[packman]

I was doing some house-cleaning yesterday and came across my replacement ECM power relay; that I thought I had already replaced. When I was done with all of the cleaning, I took some time to look at the Crown Vic ECM power relay. I discovered that I failed to replace that relay; I just cleaned the housing. I ran over to Home Depot and grabbed some contact cleaner and dielectric grease; went back home and did my thing. That relay was pretty cruddy. I'm letting it dry a bit; and maybe tomorrow I will connect the relay and see what I got. Not expecting much; but it does look a lot better than it did.

[friskyfrankie]

Looks good assuming there is no corrosive damage to the contact internally. Here is the OEM but Standard Brand is about half the price. Just in case.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393060052925?epid=188988184&hash=item5b84346fbd:g:hQkAAOSwXetd3BtA

[packman]

Yah; that is what I got/found yesterday. Perhaps I will take the terminals out of the connector and see what they look like on the other side. The terminals don't appear to have corrosion though.

[packman]

Pulled the other relays last night and found that my fuel pump relay was kinda cruddy. Then I remembered that I didn't change that out because I had already changed it 12 years ago when the fuel pump went south. So I gave the connector and the relay a good blast of contact cleaner and let them dry overnight. I will apply the dielectric grease some time today and plug them back in. If I have the time, I will power up the system and see what I got.

[packman]

I managed to steal some time last night to power up the Crown Vic and discovered the situation didn't change; still no fuel pump and no bumping the starter with the key. So I am thinking of disconnecting the A9P ecm and cracking it open to see if the capacitors for those circuits are not burned out. Even though it's a remanufactured unit; I may have burned it out when the ground connector came off of the battery when I attempted to start it up. If this is not the case and the ecm is in good shape; I might send it out to be looked at anyways; as other components could be damaged (thought I saw a couple chips in there). In the interim, I will go over the mass air swap wiring and see if I messed that up somehow. Beyond that, I have no idea what to do with this car. I have a friend who has a Banks ecm that he's willing to let go of for a decent price. I may look into that option as well.

[packman]

So I pulled the A9P this afternoon and saw that one of the capacitors that was lying up against the Quarterhorse had powder/corrosion on one of its legs. Everything else looks good. I have zero expertise in servicing ECMs; so I will send the A9P out to somebody who can see if that is a problem; or at the least give it a good checkup. Hopefully this has been the proverbial thorn in the side of this project.

[friskyfrankie]

Sorry if I missed it but did you replace the Fuel Pump relay with a new one?

[packman]

No. I had already replaced the fuel pump relay back in 2009 when the original fuel pump died. I have another RY46 relay in the parts bin in case the fuel pump relay went bad.

[friskyfrankie]

No. I had already replaced the fuel pump relay back in 2009 when the original fuel pump died. I have another RY46 relay in the parts bin in case the fuel pump relay went bad.

Cool! I'd surely do that before replacing the pump or ECM. Hopefully that is the issue and you'll save a lot of work (and expense). Could always try taping the relay to see if you get any action out of it.