Recently I purhcase a 1993 E150, I completely rebuilt the tired ol'5 ltr replacing everything but the connecting rods and valves. The cam I purchased was from Comp Cams, its an energy cam that will work with my current computer with no mods. After reassembly I ran into several problems most of which I've got lick or running solutions for. Currently my speedo and odometer are giving me fits (actaully not working, got a thread on that... Thanks to STEVE83, I think I got it licked), the cluster was on it's way to Ford Motor company for testing, it's good to have friends I got alittle excited today so I took the old girl out on her maiden voyage, I found out the hard way you need the cluster to keep the battery charged. *NOTE TO SELF* After getting the cluster back from my friend, jumping my dead battery I got on the E-way cruising about 60-70 to get a feel for the engine. Well she couldn't pass her own shadow .... Timing was way off, when I got home I corrected the problem, only the highway in O.D. will tell. During my reajustment phase, I pulled the old girl up on the ramps to check something. I noticed as the van was pulling itself up the ramps I had what felt like a miss or another way to explain it.... A chug. I checked a few plugs for a possible misfiring spark plug and found one plug black with soot, it was the only one different from the others so I repalced it. I still have this miss feeling when I drive the van down the road and the trans shift early. FYI - It's a fresh tank of gas... I understand the cluster has something to do the trans shifting on time but I don't think it should affect the engine ... Right???? Any tips to get me started T/S'ing the problem while my cluster is repaired would be appreciated, at this point I'd like nothing more to be done with this project and enjoy the driving my new slightly used van

 

First thing, go to Autozone and see if they can pull codes from the computer. Post them here and I'll tell you what they mean.

 

334 Speed sensor insufficent input. A friend lent me a star tester. I replaced the speed sensor on the axle and checked the trans for one. The trans does not have one, Ive checked for power at the axle, it had 4.98v. Anything you got, I will try. Currently I'm waiting to get my cluster back from my friend at FoMoCo, I couldn't locate a schematic for it so his electric guys won't touch it for fear of breaking it

 

I have 334 listed as "EGR Valve Position Sensor closed Valve voltage Higher than Expected."

 

I'm sorry you are correct ... 334 is the EGR valve, that cleared up after running the engine down the highway. The error was 452, VSS insuffient input. I've visited a few web sites so I can trouble shoot this problem, I think I narrowed it down to the speedo cluster. Here is why: I checked for voltage at the VSS pickup on the rearend 4.98V. I checked for voltage at the speedo cluster, there are three plugs that plug in the back of the cluster. I figure I would only worry about the black plug that plugs directly into the speedo/Odometer. Because I don't have a schematic I checked each wire, I got two readigns... One was .385V and the other was 12V. I found two suggestions to test the VSS input to the speedo cluster. Both suggestions were to use a volt/ohm meter to test. One suggestion stated, with a volt meter check the voltage at the plug while the vehicle is moving but it doesn't indicate which wires to test from. The second suggestion was identical only using ohms. If I could confirm my VSS signal at the cluster, I would know if it's the cluster
Electronics have made great gains in the automotive industry, when they don't work..... It's only makes it harder to diagnose.

 

One of these days we'll see error correcting hardware in vehicles, but it'll be a while!

 

What will be nice is when you can program a PCM to match a car. Like a BIOS in a computer, the BIOS is setup to recognize a list of hardware components..... You just boot it up and whalla. Until then