tripminder

[Pablito]

Exxxcellent!

[Glen]

I have one of these in my 89 LX and the buttons are a pain to work. I have to push in and move them around to get them to work. How big a deal is it to take it apart and clean it? I can take a motor apart and put it back trogether again, but all the little wires and things like that are a no no!

[NATEHAWK]

Just use a small piece of sand paper... Its not hard at all just be careful and dont be like me and work on it on the carpet i think my last one got static discharge from the carpet or my body. :coocoo:

[Pablito]

Update....

All functions now work.

First I installed the speed sensor, and ran the wires to it using the factory routing. I thought that this would be the easiest part of the project, but it turned out quite different. For some reason I couldn't get the end of the speedo cable into the VSS. After a couple of quick measurements with some calipers I determined that it wasn't going to happen without some modifying.

Remembering that the VSS I got from the yard came out of a later model box I looked to see what years had what VSS. The '86 carried a different part number that the later years. So I decided to just bite the bullet and buy a new VSS ($18) for an '86.

Well.. I had the same problem with the new VSS.

I ended up boring out the old VSS to 7/16" with a drill bit, and everything slid right into place.

OK.. now for the fuel imput (Pin #34).

I found a Blue/Lt. Purple wire dangling next to the ECM harness. The colors were right, but I didn't think I would be so lucky as to find a connector already set up for the tripminder. So I disconnected the ECM harness, and took a closer look.


I traced the wire back to.... you guessed it.. Pin #34! :banana:


Here's what I had after I reconnected the ECM harness...


From there on in it was simply a matter of hooking these two up to the Tripminder (Well.. 3 wires if you count the ground wire for the VSS).

I ran the wires through the grommet used for the cruise control harness, and routed everything along some existing wiring behind the dash for a factory setup.

Then it was time for a test drive.




Life is good.

-Paul

[Grand Marquis GT]

[NATEHAWK]

Yeah i have the odometer part workin and it shows teh average mph but teh gas part im fucked.. lol I wasnt as lucky as you to even have a wire in pin 34..

[Pablito]

Then just add one. It shouldn't take too long.

You can even buy the correct terminal that's used in the EEC harness.


Or you can just grab one off a junker and slip in into slot 34. You'll just have to drill a hole for the wire in the cap (the light blue shroud you see in my pics).

BTW... are you sure you don't have anything in the harness for pin 34?


-Paul

[NATEHAWK]

Man trust me im 100%sure i have nothing in the harness for pin 34.. Also my cover on mine is yellow not blue like urs.. But yeah i will have to add that wire soon, where u get that connector from thou?

[Pablito]

where u get that connector from thou?

I don't know of any "local" parts stores to get them, but for .35 each you can get some here:

http://fordfuelinjection.com/index.php?p=79

BTW... that's a great site run by a guy named Ryan who's from what I've seen from the past few years on a Bronco forum a very knowledgeable, and stand-up guy.

[NATEHAWK]

Yea its really informative that guy either knows his shit or knows were to find his shit lol...

[85crownHPP]

hats off to you pablito!!!

After first reading this I ran out to see if I had a fuel wire dangling from my ECM harness, but like Nate I did not, and I am sad

BUT! fiddling around in that area gave me an inspiration boost to clean up that fenderwell, so maybe while I have the cruise ball off I might feel brave enough to go poking into my ECM harness conector
Maybe Ill go poke around in one at the junkyard first...

Also while I was bonding with the fender well today, I popped apart one of its wire harness connectors and discovered you can remove/add pins into those too!
Now I can remove the stock oil/temp sender wires completely without having to damage them!!!
I know thats nothing special but it makes me soooo happy :coocoo:

[NATEHAWK]

Yea Pete why we cant have a wire at pin 34 for our fuel flow.. Pablito what year is ur car? And remember he has a Grand Marquis

[Pablito]

Also while I was bonding with the fender well today, I popped apart one of its wire harness connectors and discovered you can remove/add pins into those too!

Yeah you can do that for just about every (if not all) connectors in the whole car.

Makes it pretty easy to make your own harnesses with factory connectors.

Everytime I'm at a yard pulling parts I'll snip off a few connectors for future use.

-Paul

[85crownHPP]

NATE WE MIGHT HAVE NEW HOPE!!!

check out this thread on that other site...

http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB24&Number=899150&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

and here is a copy of my reply:

I assumed the position under the dash, and sure enough a scoped out the 'little guy' (blue wire, purple stripe) with an empty connector, taped to a harness behind the speedo.
Likewise, I found a 3 wire connector with two wires in it, one of them green with a white stripe. these were part of a wiring harness that went through the firewall with a big fat vacuum line to the speedo ball. The harness also split off into a small black module that sits next to the ECM, which I assume is the cruise computer!

Nate: I saw the 'litte guy' from under the dash... you should see if you got him!!! maybe you just missed it when you looked at your ECM harness.

All: I think there are three trimpinder at my yard... i will soo be offering tested working tripminders with harness for say.... $30 shipped???

[85crownHPP]

hey Pablito!!

eeemmm....

you wouldn't want to figure out how to apply trimpinder inputs to a towncar message center, part of the digi speedo, would you ???