Howdy

Had a heck of a time figuring out why my 88' Club Wagon XLT w/7.5 efi (duraspark II) was stumbling and stalling on me.

It would start out fine when cold and around town driving but once I hit the highway and kept it rolling at 65 or so it would stumble and stall leaving me on the side of the road. I would fiddle with the connectors and relays etc thinking it was an electrical issue. After a while of trying things it would start and id think it WAS one of the connectors.

It kept doing this more and more often, I took it to a couple service shops, they found a few small items and eliminated other minor issues but they did not fix it.

For once the internet came up with some good advice and someone on this forum reminded me about how the electronic efi system uses the water temp sensor to adjust the amount of fuel being used.

That was it! The $15 water temp sensor was the culprit, obviously the sensor was giving signals that the engine was cold and dumping more and more fuel in till it could no longer keep running. Once the sensor cooled off it would start. I changed that one item and was able to drive almost 300 miles with zero trouble, and it smoothed out the idle a bit as well.

On my van this sensor is located next to the distributor, has a round two pin plug with two tangs (the hardest part) and is installed with a 1" deep well socket. Be careful, be sure the coolant is cool, and of course it will spill some, watch out for the distributor getting wet as well, but an easy fix.

Hope this helps others !

 

I bet you mileage gets a little bump, too, but with a 460 who can tell?

Worst part about the 20+ year old connectors is breaking the plastic clips on every one I touch.

 

I think we've all dealt with this----here's a possible solution though: http://www.fordservicecontent.com/pu...torcatalog.pdf

Another trick I've found is warming old connectors with a hair dryer or LOW powered heat gun for a few seconds before attempting to disconnect them. Not a sure-fire works everytime thing but worth the trouble more often than not.

 

JWA - that catalog is gold and I love the idea of the heat gun - it's so obvious it hurts that I never thought of it before - thanks!

 

Glad to be of help JBWheels!

 

I used two dental picks to get my connector off, fortunately I had ALL my tools with me when I had all my trouble.

Looks like the water temp sensor in question on my van uses either connector...
WPT-428 (Tin) - 3U2Z-14S411-FZA
or
WPT-433 (Tin) - 3U2Z-14S411-MEA
Can't tell the difference between the two!

Now can anyone tell me why Ford needs 228 different 2-pin connectors types? Wow!

 

I've used these to great effect with a lot of the Ford OEM connectors: They do come in a variety of configurations depending on the brand name. Lisle makes another flavor:


No idea how those two you list differ----such things have always made me wonder too. Of course when it comes to pricing them I check both and use the less expensive one. I'm often shocked how much the replacement connectors cost---talk about sticker shock.

And then sometimes this has to do with size limitations for the application but mostly it probably relates to the designed amperage any one connector will or can handle. Other than that its just one more way auto manufacturers conspire to confuse us and make simple jobs tougher?

 

The different connectors is to make it fool proof when the vehicle is built and/or worked on. You can't connect something in error if the plug won't fit!

 

Howdy Folks !
Guess what... Its Back !
After a year and about 1500 miles (it has been in dry storage 98% of this last year) the problem is back.
Still the same symptom, gets relatively hot (but certainly not overheating) and it stumbles and cuts out and soon is dead. I let it cool 20 minutes or so and I am able to progress another few miles.

So of course I changed the coolant temp sensor thinking it (the replacement from last year) may of been gone bad, but no change this time, barely made it home.

Because the symptom is so very close to the last problems I have to figure it is still related to the fuel injection system getting all out of shape.

So if the coolant temp sensor is in the loop with the ECU what else is also in the loop ? It looks like the sensors in the circuit are thus....

Throttle Position sensor (TPS)
EGR Valve position sensor (EVP)
Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor (MAP)
Engine Coolant Temp Sensor (ECT)
Air Charge Temp Sensor (ACT)
Knock Sensor (KS)

I think I can eliminate the ECT and KS.

That narrows it down to one of four ( 25% whoo hoo ! ) So the question is, what sensor has the most trouble with getting hot and going haywire? I hate to start guessing, any help with troubleshooting would be great help to at least start eliminating sensors from the list.

I will continue to drive through my crappy service manual and see if I can find some tests for the sensors.

Thanks for any help in this quest !

 

I had a problem like this years ago on a '89, with a 302.

After many times stalling out, and "waiting" for it to cool down to re-start, one day I was moving around the body to engine connectors and it died, pulled one apart, and noticed all the corrosion inside the connector.

Ended up cutting every single connector off and splicing each wire (30+ wires) with B-caps, totally solve the problems, got the cruse control back working too.

Bad part, 4 months later, the van got T-boned while parked overnight on the street, and, well, put that van to the grave

 

i couldn't even do that task because I'm colorblind. Wiring is nearly impossible for me.

But the the purpose of my reply is to ask what is a B cap? I've seen and used and known of, many types of wiring connectors and repairs, but I've never heard of that.

 

A "B-Cap" is a wire splice like used in household wiring... you know the type, twist the wires together and twist the B-Cap over them until tight. Works pretty good with solid wires.

Not the best for automotive use as they will eventually untwist and possibly drop off and then you have an exposed set of wires ready to fall apart and leave you stranded at best... at worst, burn your ride to the ground.

A better type is the type of cap that is like a B-Cap but requires a crimp to hold them... lets hope that is what Wildman used !

 

Throttle Position sensor (TPS)
EGR Valve position sensor (EVP)
Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor (MAP)
Engine Coolant Temp Sensor (ECT)
Air Charge Temp Sensor (ACT)
Knock Sensor (KS)

I think the KS is off the list, I sit next to the engine and hear no knock, and don't believe a malfunction would kill the engine.

The ECT is off the list because I changed it with no result.

The EGR valve I don't believe would kill the engine with a malfunction.

The TPS is just a potentiometer or variable resister, when they go bad from ware it is usually via a "bad Spot" on the resister, once again don't think it would kill the engine. This also has the problem of needing some type of special set-up to calibrate once changed.

The MAP is possible, it has magic electronics inside that determine the fuel/air charge to some extent... I have not found where this item lives, but I know its basically a hunk of plastic and is not likely to be mounted to the engine block but instead to the chassis or upper intake manifold area.

The ACT is located right in the intake manifold just like the ECT and is a prime candidate and is relatively cheap. It sits on top the engine and gets heat soaked a thousand million times in its life.

For today I will go with the ACT, 20$ from O'Reilly.

Fingers crossed.

 

Delphi weather pack connectors are the best choice
they are not cheap but are the best

 

Yes, Wildman uses the crimp on B-caps with a shot of die-electric grease in them

Picture of crimp on B-caps -




This B-cap, AKA "Dolphin's" is what I use mostly on me day job, but there only good for up to 3 18ga wires.



In theory..........it's better for stranded wires to use crimp on connectors over screwed on "wire nuts" more suited for solid wires.