I got this little breaker box under my dash that appantly runs my advance. Well it's clicking and ******* the truck out. Is this clicking b/c it's shot or is it clicking b/c of a dist/coil prob? It's an 86 4x4 F-150 w/ a carbed 6.

Redneck-Cowboy

 

I had the same problem with my 84. I went to Advance Auto and bought a new relay for it and the problem persisted. Not really knowing what to do next I unplugged it and left it alone, I then forgot to plug it back in when I had to go some where. I drove it with it unplugged and the problem stopped! I went back under the dash and put some electrical tape over the plug and left it be. It works fine now! Sounds weird but it worked.

 

I also unplugged it, but I lost about a quarter of the power. Ialso bought another one and the auto parts stores had a hell of a time finding it for me, nobody seems to have heard of these. The actual computer box is right on and under and part of the dist. Anyway I took off the dist. cap and cleaned the rotor and each of the dist. contacts and simply put it back together and now it doesn't run at all and this isn't the 1st time I've done this, so I did it right. I didn't unplug anything else. So today I stuck a spark plug in the coil wire and touched the spark plug on the frame, nothing. So I figured the coil must have went bad, so I took it off, now is there any other way to test it?

Redneck-Cowboy

 

It sounds like you might want to concider a Duraspark two conversion. I am at a loss for words on that one! I know when my EEC IV system goes, that is what I will be converting to! Good luck!

 

At the battery, there is a small wire coming off the negative terminal. This is a direct ground to that relay and the computer. I've had the connection there get so bad that every time you'd hit a bump, the relay would click and my truck would run like crap. Turn the ignition on (engine off) and wiggle this wire. If you can make the relay click, that's most likely your problem.

 

To Brown 4x4: You nailed it buddy. I was just gettin ready to drive out to my local mechanics when I'd thought I'd check my mail first. It wouldn't run b/c the control module blew out on the bottom of the dist. well I replaced that last night and it started right up but still clicked, so I was gonna try to find a coil, but then you came along and I instantly drug my brother outside and it was clicking like no other when I moved it, the wire was hanging on by one wire, so I jerked it off, put a end on it and bolted it on the clamp and she's running strong agian. Thanks for the crap lot of money you saved me. I just hate taken it to a mechanic, that's what I'm looking to major in so what kind of person would I be, it's just this darn electricial crap, I always assume the worst, plus I never did look into to much where that wire actually went.

Redneck-Cowboy

 

No problem, glad I could help you out. That's the great thing about this board.

 

Before this all happen I losing highend power so now that I got it running agian I went out and bought a dist. cap rotor and a set of plug wires. It idles really really smooth now, better then it ever has, but I'm still lacking highend power at the most it only goes 70 down the road and takes its time gettin there. Do think the coil is gettin weak?

On another note (brown 4x4) I see your from NE, alright, I'm over here in Saunders County still pretty much snowless, I was so happy last week when I heard it was supposed to snow 5inchs, but then my truck quit, and it didn't snow anyway. So now I'm ready to bust some drifts and hook up the 79 truck hood for some fun on the streets and fields with my friends.

Redneck-Cowboy

86 Ford F-150 4x4 300 4spd man.

 

Are your original catalytic converters still on there? They could be plugged costing you a lot of top end power.

I missed out on the snow pretty much too. I'm at school in Norfolk and we only got maybe an inch, just enough to make all the streets slick. I'm from Brown county, and I guess they got a couple inches more up there though.

 

Well I'm running a pure striaght pipe (no cats or mufflers), so that's diffently not the prob.

Redneck Cowboy

I was just in Norfolk week and a half ago to watch Norfolk Central Catholic play Neumann.

 

on my 83', it burns through that wire coming off of the battery, the truck will turn over but won't fire when that happens, it also max's out my tach...

it's done it twice, making me think the ignition was bad, I just got lucky noticing the wire had broken, and repairing it fixed my problem....

 

Well I loaded my pickup down w/ wood yesterday and it acts like nothings on it (the engine anyway, springs are shot) Goes down the road almost as good as it does empty, but still no highend.

Redneck-Cowboy

 

This aint really exactly related to this thread but Ill go at it anyways cuz maybe somebody out there could use my input. I got a 84 F 150 302 with the duraspark 2 setup. Back last summer before i went to the marines my truck quit runnin one day. I checked the fuel had it. It cranked strong. Checked the spark no spark. I checked the voltage at the coil and had none so rigged a wire up to the battery so I could drive er home. Checked each wire from the module for hot and 1 wire wasnt hot unless i unplugged the distributor plug to the pickup. So i replaced the pickup and still nothin. Also had the module tested and it was good. Then i was thinkin i had a burnt wire. CHecked all the wire under the hood and none of it was too burnt so it wouldnt get fire. I found one red wire that is supposed to be hot with ignition on. Traced the red wire back from the module to the fuse box and looked where it connected to the box. On the other side it had a blown fuse. Replaced the fuse and never had another problem with it till I tried to swap in a SuperStock coil and it never had any top end power and coldnt be timed right but thats another story. While I was checking all the wires from the coil and distributor to the module, I found a corroded wire that was maybe causin too much resistance on the fuse and caused it to blow. So the moral of this story is to check fuses first. But I figure if I didnt check the firing and found the root of my problem, the fuse woulda blowed again when it got a chance.