Hi all,

I'm new here and to Fords as well. I picked up a 900 dollar 84 base f150 with the 4.9 300 in August and it ran so I didn't mess with it. I could see hoses were plugged in every which way but it never gave me trouble so I didn't question it! I've been getting about 5 mpg though and the carb is an old 1 bbl rochester that is flooding itself to death. After researching I've realized I need to do a duraspark conversion. I've read up on all the forums for about a week now and I've compiled (off an '80 f150 from a junkyard) a ds 2 dizzy, ICM, and a wiring harness. I'm ready to do the swap, but the wiring is really messing me up. So I have two questions:

1) There was no dizzy clamp on my truck, the screw was just threaded into the block. I realized that the dizzy off my '84 sits a lot more flush than the one I picked up from the junkyard which sits about a 1/8 inch higher. Is this normal?

2) My harness is butchered. I took pictures and created a new album on the photobucket linked below. I'm hoping someone on here will be kind enough to help me out with this. I see the dizzy plug and I swapped the crescent ignition coil connector for the TFI connector. After unwrapping the tape, I realized the + for the coil connector is one of loose wires. The plugs that apparently plug into the truck are all cut out. There were a bunch of loose wires that were cut out , I'm not sure what I need and don't need. There are also three connectors that I took a picture of that I haven't seen on pictures of other people's harnesses. I need major help here trying to figure out which wires go where. This is not my strong suit. If you need more pictures or anything let me know.

http://s1116.photobucket.com/user/ch...ring%20harness

Thanks in advance for any help!

Charlie

 

Here's a diagram. Look for a red/green wire coming from the firewall. That goes to the + coil "bat" terminal. Look around for a red/blue or run another wire from the starter solenoid to the white wire on the module.

 

First a few questions.
What size engine did the harness come off of, V8 or 6?
Do you have a stock tach in the instrument cluster?

Step 1
Lets start with the DS2 IGN module.
Your truck will have a mating connector for the 2 wire plug, find this.
Next... on the 4 wire plug on the DS2 IGN module. Unwrap the wires. 3 of the wire should go to a plug that mates with the Dist plug.
The forth wire, green, will go to the coil negative.

This is really all you need out that mess of wires.

Report back ... then we will go on to step 2
Jim

 

The guy at the junkyard said it was off an '80 f150 300. There is no tach on the cluster.

I have the 4 wire plug on the ignition module going to the dist with the one green wire going to the coil negative. I spliced the wires to the TFI coil since I was told that coil will still work, and I didn't want to buy a new set of plugs to get that male to female coil-distributor wire. Shortly after doing that, the negative coil wire snapped at the neck near the coil connector just from being old and cold I'm assuming (See 4th picture below). I didn't think this was a problem as I think that's just the tach wire?

As for the 2 wire connector on the DS2 module, I found the red/green wire coming from the driver's side firewall (1st and 3rd picture) that was going into the original plug and I spliced that with the red/green wire going to the coil + and that same wire splits to a brown wire that I spliced to the red wire on the DS2 module (see 2nd picture). Then I just connected a wire from the white wire on the DS2 module to the S on my starter relay (The Red/blue wire in 5th picture). I realized I have no "I" terminal on my relay. I'm not sure if this is a problem?

I basically followed the wiring diagram that was posted earlier just without the wire from the "I" terminal on the relay. It's not starting so I've definitely done something wrong. I didn't realize one of the original plugs connects to the 2 wire plug on the DS2 module. Which one is it? Once I get it running, I'll replace the connections with proper wiring instead of these ugly connectors.

Thanks for the help!!

 

First picture, 3 wire plug on the right, will / should plug into the 2 wire plug on the DS2 IGN module. The plugs are indexed and only fits if it is the right spot.

Remove the wire you added on the starter solenoid.

It looks like you have the correct wire powering the positive side of the coil.

Connect the 4 wires (4 wire plug on the IGN module) as follows...
3 wires to the Dist, this just plugs into the Dist.
The last wire green wire needs to go the the negative side of the coil, this is the spot in the photo showing the broken wire on the coil. This is also why the engine will not run.

I think that is everything.
JIm

 

Thanks Jim!

I've done the wiring according to those instructions. When I tried to start it there was a loud backfire. It looked like it actually popped the positive coil connector out of the plastic housing. I've tried twisting the distributor to mess with the timing but it keeps happening. Any idea what's causing this?

Thanks
Charlie

 

This might be a timing issue.