I am a total amateur mechanic. Thought I would tackle an icm install on the distributor on my87 f150. Had to turn the dizzy but made sure to mark it so the timing would be correct. Cleaned the leads in the dizzy and coated them with dielectric grease. Installed the new icm on the outside of the distributor used the heat dissapating grease. Now nothing. Cab light won't even come on unless I hook up a battery charger. I have no testing equipment and no knowledge of how to use them. Also I am a teacher with a limited budget. Total noob here so any help would be appreciated.

 

Try removing the cables from the battery posts and cleaning the inside of the battery cables and the outside of the battery posts for starters.

 

Thanks for the tip. I did try that already. Actually after reading some, I think I may have put too much dielectric grease on the terminals inside the distributor. I'm going to try to clean them off. I mean I really smeared it all over them.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...o-files-4.html

 

Thanks Tim. I had just read this thread! That's what gave me the idea. Any suggestions on how to clean out all that gunk from the connectors?

 

Yes, use CRC Contact Cleaner with the little red straw and flush it out, then if they will get in there, use some micro q-tips. Then you may want to put some Deoxit Gold on the contacts (some people say it is hocus pocus, but I like the idea of putting some type of contact enhancer on the connections).

I was interested in the subject, and one of the interesting things I came across was that Ducati recommended that all plugs be coated with dielectrict grease, then a year or two later they reversed their recommendation. Because while dielectric grease does a good job of preventing water intrusion at the plug interface, people were mistakenly also putting it into the bullet hole connections. And DIE Electric grease kills conductivity. (Especially on 5v low voltage sensor output signals like the PIP.) And also what about the back of the plug where the wires go, water gets in there right? Dielectric grease at the plug interface does nothing to prevent water intrusion from the back of the plug.

So, I am not a big fan of dielectric grease, but contact cleaner will get it out.

I am stoked that you are rebuilding your distributor to generate the PIP signal. Here is where I am in the same analysis here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...51-eec-iv.html

If you haven't read Abraham's easyautodiagnotics.com stuff, I highly recommend it for a methodical approach to trouble shooting.

Bobby, please post your experience with your distributor rebuild.

 

I'm not sure what you mean here but that wouldn't cause you to lose all electric power inside the cab.

 

i was worried about this as well. I put the dielectric grease all over the contacts for the icm (the little orange plug inside the distributor). A suggestion from a mechanic friend. I pretty much squeezed half a tube in there. It's weird, because if I plug up a battery charger I get lights on in the cab. If not it's completely dead. I don't really understand electricity and circuits, so this has me baffled. Any ideas? And, thanks Tim. Big help. I'll keep you posted. I cringe at having to break this thing down again. Never moved the distributor around, so I'm worried I won't get the timing right, even though I marked the position.

 

i was worried about this as well. I put the dielectric grease all over the contacts for the icm (the little orange plug inside the distributor). A suggestion from a mechanic friend. I pretty much squeezed half a tube in there. It's weird, because if I plug up a battery charger I get lights on in the cab. If not it's completely dead. I don't really understand electricity and circuits, so this has me baffled. Any ideas? And, thanks Tim. Big help. I'll keep you posted. I cringe at having to break this thing down again. Never moved the distributor around, so I'm worried I won't get the timing right, even though I marked the position.

 

Another thought. My negative battery cable has a small crack where it connects with the terminal. However I banged it back so it was making contact.

 

Sounds like a bad battery.
Do not worry about the dielectric grease in plug for the distributor as it will not hurt anything.
The dielectric grease will keep water out and prevent corrosion in the plug in area. It will not cause a bad connection or drop the voltage any.
If you put dielectric grease inside the distributor itself under the rotor then you need to clean that out.
But do not worry about the distributor until you get the lights working and the engine cranking.
After you get the engine cranking then we will talk about getting it started and running.

 

thanks. The battery is new, but the cables worry me. I'll troubleshoot that first.

 

I don't know why they supply dielectric grease for these modules anyway it the wrong compound altogether for heat transfer, what you want is heatsink compound. Maybe this is why I seldom ever had any issue with the distributor mounted TFI modules.. I always used heatsink compound.

I agree with Bill K though, if you have no power in the cab your problem is at the battery or possibly the ignition switch, get a multimeter and start measuring things starting at the battery which should be producing at least 12.5v.

 

I think he said that used white Thermal Compound for the heat transfer and Dielectric grease for the three prong plug socket.

 

That is correct. I used the heat sink grease for the icm and dielectric grease on terminals. Just bought new battery terminals going home to install. Let you know.