Hello,

I'm thinking of relocating the TFI module off my distributor, and want to know if it's simply a matter of cutting the tape and pulling the wires I'm interested in out, then redirecting them to the inner fender, or are the wires twisted and tangled up with the other wires in the wrap such that trying to pull them out would be a nightmare?

Thank you,

Rick

 

If you look on the web, people seem to do it all the time with no problems. I have been doing some research on it, I want to move the module on my ranger pickup. But I haven't done it yet. I am having a problem finding a spot to mount it. The wires circle around from the pass side of the engine compartment, so it will have to be mounted over there somewhere, but there is not much room.

 

Cut the tape totaly off, don't pull the wire through the harness it will cause it to break inside the insulation causing bad connections! I have rebuilt many wire harness before and the best way is to get it totaly out of the vehicle and place it on a nice sized floor. Spred out the connectors and start removing the tape and other things they used to hold the harness together. Its a messy job as that old tape goo will get on your hands and that stuff is hard to get off!

Once you have the harness "opened up" you can move/remove or add wires you need. I use small zipties to hold the harness in place where the harness branches off. Use good electrical tape and rewrap it up.

This is when I did the My Plymouth Caravelle's engine bay wire harness. Passed inspection per Prince.....

I did the same thing to my 89 F250 using a 92 F150 harness when I swapped engines and decided to use a "better" harness from the 92 truck.

 

Why trouble yourself hacking your harness when kits are easily available?
If you want to do it for fun that's one thing, but my time sourcing the parts needed and assembling it are worth more than ~$55

McCully Racing Motors- We have exactly what your over-heated TFI Module Needs!

fatfoxx.com - Mustang wide body kit

 

On a Ranger It'll fit there, on my 88 the harness when all unwrapped from it's current location will reach over to the passenger side right near the start solenoid. (you may have to remove the "cover" or notch it)..

In my case for the extensions wires I decided to gut an old TFI module and solder three new wires inside to the pins and then filled it with hot glue when done.

To the OP, I would as some said just unwrap your lead to the current TFI location and see how much length you have once separating it from the other wires..I would think your biggest concern would be how much length of stretch with the current leads you could unravel depending on your engine (v-8 or Six). Worst case you MAY have to extend your current leads as well as run the three (3) new wires from the diz to your new chosen location. If this is the case any custom kit bought would only be part of the problem (the three wire part)..

It sure is nice though to have to have that thing in an accessible location and of course cooler.

 

What type of heatsink did you use? The one I have is a large piece and it's going to be hard to find a spot for it under the hood. The aircleaner takes all the room up over there. I guess a hacksaw will help shrink the heatsink up some so it will fit better.

 

About the heat-sink, I used the Ford one (Aerostar, f, and e series)..I began to collect these on my trips to the local pic'n-pull. And you have to take out a few of the fins as noted on

Remote Mount TFI Ignition Module

Where I put it was a spot on the steel plate that bolts to the side inner fender that holds the starter sol and few other things.."kind hard to explain but if you have a mid-late 80's ranger it will have one (not sure about an 89 and up different config)..it's a pretty small heat sink, I'm sure u've seen'm...(my 88 had a 2.9 v-6)..ran like a top..26mpg

http://therangerstation.com/tech_lib...emote_tfi3.jpg

It's been a while (cple years)..if I can fine the pics of the install I'll post them..

 

Not a good idea to cut down the TFI heatsink. A bigger heatsink is better as it can dump more heat out to the air. TFI modules do run very warm. I noticed this after using the 92's wire harness as it has the remote TFI. It runs warm enough to consider using a CPU fan in it. I didn't know they got that warm!

 

Switching that kind of current 50,000 times a minute for hours at a time is going to create some heat.

I would think a 12V CPU fan would be a boon to module longevity.

 

Just think about the heat effects of the stock FORD configuration....with the TFI on the DIZ.. clue..get it to a cooler location...

 

I found a heatsink out of an old radio transmitter, it's not the TFI/Ford type.

I like this little 2.9 also, it's a great engine with lots of power(it's a 86 with a 5 speed and 3.73 gears). I don't know why anyone would want to swap a 302 into one after driving one with this little engine in it. But the EECIV does give me problems once in awhile, and unfortunately there is no old school swapping on this engine, it was born with fuel injection.

I have been tempted to do a megasquirt swap.

 

I agree with you about the power to weight ratio of the 2.9 powered rig. A great way to go for sure. I just missed the option of finding a distributor of choice for that motor series even searching in Europe.

 

Anyone got an old wiring harness they wanna part with? Removing the harness for the modifications is the best way I'm sure, but there's no way I could get it out, make the modifications, and then reinstall it in the few hours I could borrow the use of a garage in. There are several kits for relocating the TFI modules I know, but they all deal with the connection to the distributor, but ignore the fact that the large six terminal connector is still stuck by the distributor. I wonder if the wires that go to this connector are all single pathway connections all the way back to the firewall, or if some are spliced midway somewhere in the wrapping.

As for a heat sink, I got a relatively large one for it off E-Bay, and some shielded 16 AWG twisted wire for the distributor connection, and a couple rolls of 'Elliott' tape to wrap up what ever I take apart. That tape is pretty unique stuff, I don't know why it's use isn't more widespread. It's cheap, too...

 

I don't believe it would be that big of a deal to just unwrap it while it's still on the engine, possibly unhooking a few things here and there to help with access. That's what I plan on doing. You can unwrap the harness and still drive it, so long as you wrap a couple pieces of tape here and there to hold it up out of harms way. I do not like to be rushed, and that sounds like what you are going to try to do when you get access to a garage.

 

I agree with Franklin, and from my memory, the engine "run" wires in the harness are the most "spliced into" and branched as you open the cirecuits in the TFI wiring. The "start" and "RUN" feed line to the TFI mod, and the "coil" feed obviously have places to go, but other than that..most things go back to the puter, so whatever your harness route on your engine takes you to the firewall grommet will be what you unravel I think. Like any other 85 Ford, the main key run power comes from the driver's fender-well plugs and then branches to whatever engine harness you have. When I have converted these to "Duraspark" I have left all of the existing wiring intact to the coil, and stripped out the other stuff that basically goes to sensors and the firewall umbilical. I would guess there is enuf wiring in the main TFI mod leads to take it somewhere cooler if you just start unraveling. take it 1 step at a time....

If ur worried about leaving any wiring exposed as ur fussin' with it, you may want to get some "auto-loom" (some high temp plastic wire loom covering) to use as you go, you'll want to use it as you finalize ur modifications anyway.