Hi all,

I am replacing the 460 FI motor in my 1988 F-450 truck with a low mileage FI 460 from a 1996 model. The two engines look nearly identical with the same TB injection etc. One difference I noticed though is that the older motor has a distributor with two electrical plugs, one of which goes to the ignition control module. The newer motor distributor has only one electrical plug and no apparent ignition control module at all. So which do I use? Doesn't seem like the newer dizzy would work with the 1988 wiring harness.

Randy

 

I have not heard of a distributor with two plugs on it.

The 1988 should have the TFI module mounted on the side of the distributor with a single plug plugged into it. There is also a SPOUT shorting bar plugged into a splice holder in the area near the bottom of the distributor. It is in the SPOUT wire that is going to the plug that plugs into the TFI module.

The 1996 should just have one plug on a pigtail that goes to the remote mounted ICM and the PCM. The SPOUT shorting bar is near the ICM.

 

The 1988 distributor has two plugs. One is oblong and plugs into the electronic control module mounted on the side of the distributor and the other is round and is on a pigtail coming out of the distributor body. The 1996 distributor has only the round one on the pigtail and no control module on the outside of the distributor. Not sure what is meant by a shorting bar or splice holder.

 

The splice holder (for lack of a better name) holds the shorting bar (or jumper) that shorts the two ends of the SPOUT wire together. You pull the SPOUT shorting bar out when you set the timing with a timing light to 10 degrees BTDC.

The SPOUT shorting bar is labeled SPOUT in this diagram:


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Does the 1988 have the ignition control module on the side of the distributor or is it mounted somewhere else?

 

The 1988 has the ignition module mounted on the side of the dizzy as shown in your photo. It also has a roundish plug on a short lead coming out of the dizzy body. This plug is inserted in a mating plug which is part of the main wiring harness for the whole engine.

The 1996 has no ignition module and no oval plug as shown in your photo. It does have what appears to be the same roundish plug on a short lead coming from the dizzy body, just like the 1988 has. That is all it has.

I will try to get a photo posted of each soon.

Randy