no, that box on the driver side fender is the EEC and fuel pump relays.

 

Not entirely sure I'm tracking Tom. Is the box in one of the pictures posted above? If so I guess they are their own special relays and aren't backwards compatible. Otherwise I honestly have no clue where they're at. There is only one relay mounted behind the hood hinge so I can't imagine it is relevant in this context.

 

what i mean was in this picture:

one of those is the EEC relay, the other is the fuel pump relay. and one of the relays is missing, it should be in the empty plug.

 

Ohhh okay I got ya now. Yeah I had just pulled one of the relays out of that empty plug - there's only the two under that cover. So I know where they are but that won't help any - the relays I got are too big and have different plugins than these. Maybe '88 was a special year with special relays?

 

Nothing special about 1988 relays.... same as many other models.
Post pictures of what you found.

 

The top relay is one of the two 1988 relays I pulled out of the relay box. The bottom relay I took from my 1996 truck for comparison. The 1988 relay plug is a different configuration and is dimensionally smaller than the 1996 relay. Unless that top relay has to be disassembled further, and then oops dumb me strikes again.

 

no, i do not think you did a oopsie. if i remember correctly the 88 uses different relays than the 96 does.

 

What would make me inclined to agree with you is that the 1988s and 1989s use the low pressure in tank and high pressure external fuel pumps, so maybe those relays are different than the 1990+ FDM type?

 

if i remember correctly, that is the main reason. but i think the split was 91-older one relay, 92-newer the other one

 

you might be thinking of this;
https://www.supermotors.net/registry/media/507187

 

Yeah Vinny that looks about right. So does this mean I need a Ford specific relay to fit that plug?

 

I would say.
They are available everywhere.

 

Gotcha. Thanks Tom and Vinny. Glad we cleared that up. Gonna get rid of the universal relay and get me a Ford one.

 

ISO9001 certified....

 

https://www.supermotors.net/registry/media/747712