So I have a potential buyer on the line to buy the 400/C6 combo out of my 82 project truck. I planned to suck the motor/tranny/transaxle out anyway, and replace it with a 460/C6 combo. The guy wants to hear/see it run first.

So Dad and I grabbed a battery, and hooked it up to the solenoid, and tried to jump start the truck, but no go.



We poured gas in the carb and ran a wire from the coil to the battery. I know to put 12 volts to the coil. I have a red and green wire going to my coil. Which one is 12 volts going into the coil and which one goes to the computer?

I also have 3 wires coming out of my distributor, purple, red and black. Which wire actually powers up the distributor?

Can I run a wire from the coil to the distributor to bypass the chopped up wiring and see if I can get it to kick over?



Here's what I have to look at!





3 wires coming from the distributor.





Purple, Red and Black





It's pretty hacked up.





Which one do I connect to?

 

You need more than just power to the coil, you also need to power the electronic ignition module - the silver box on the driver's side wheel cover.

Red and white wires... one gets power in START and the other in RUN but I forget which is which.

The pickup module inside the distributor instructs the DS2 module when to fire the coil, you cannot simply apply power to the coil.

 

It still has the box attached to everything, so hopefully the ECM didn't die.

How would I go about getting power to it? Is there a connector I can jump to make it work? Pictures would be mighty helpful too.

 

Here's the wiring diagram. It sounds like you put power to the green circle in the pic, the positive post of the coil. But you also need power to the wire shown in the red circle. That's in the connector just outside of the ignition box.

Also note that the original wiring only puts full battery voltage to the coil when in Start. So if you run the engine very long with full voltage the coil is going to get hot and eventually fail. You may be fine to demo the engine, but monitor the coil temp.

 

Do you know what color wire i'm looking for off of the ignition box?

 

Looking at the red circle, the red wire from the ignition box connects to the white/light-blue-hash of the truck's wiring; this looks to be powered in RUN.

The white wire from the ignition box connects to the red/light-blue stripe of the truck's wiring; this is powered in START (ignition is retarded a few degrees here for easier starting).

<dd>The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone.</dd>

 

Listen Betty, don't start up with your white zone **** again.

 

Looks like a basic course in reading Ford schematics is in order. That page was taken from Ford's Electrical & Vacuum Trouble-Shooting Manual for the 81 trucks. We call that the EVTM and it is invaluable in working on these trucks as it not only contains the wiring diagrams for everything on the trucks but it explains how they work and tells how to trouble-shoot them.

I've attached two more pages from the front of the manual that explain how to use the manual, shows the wire color codes, and gives the electrical symbols used. That should let you answer your own questions, but if not ask again and I'll help you. However, it will help you significantly if you understand what you are seeing, so it is best if you learn it rather than have to ask someone all the time.

Well, I would have attached the pics but the powers that be have disabled that function in the middle of the day again. Good luck to you as I'm going off-line for a while to cool down.

 

I try to not ask for help unless absolutely needed, and I have an official Ford shop manual for an '86, but they only give the step by step processes for removing/installing anything and everything having to do with the mechanical stuff. Couldn't find anything in there about ignition, and if there was anything, it was drawings of what to look for...nothing about diagrams at all, which kinda sucks.

 

<!-- xxx -->

 

Might be funny to you, but not me. I spent quite a bit of time scanning in several pages from the EVTM, marking them up, and explaining things only to find I couldn't upload them. You know what my thoughts are as I've expressed them before, and if you want to share them with the others feel free.

 

I'm really sorry that happened. I've been there before and then all of a sudden the page expires, or lose power and everything I was working on is gone.

I do appreciate the help though, and know that I only ask for help with stuff like this if I can't figure it out, I've exhausted every other avenue, or I'm in the dark about it all together.

Electrical stuff I am in the dark about anyway and usually need help from my dad just about any time electrics are involved. He used to own his own battery shop in Las Vegas in the 70's, so he's very familiar with these older systems. I on the other-hand am a huge newb.

 

I appreciate the thoughts. I didn't save the pages I marked up, but here are two that should help.

 

Perfect, that's exactly what i was needing!

Thanks Gary!

 

Glad I could help - finally.