I have a 1988 F250 with a carbureted 460; the original engine was a fuel injected 351 and I'm not the one who did the swap.

Here's the mess: the person(s) who did the swap left the original engine wiring harness; the alternator and distributor still use this harness. I've done some research and found the solution to the alternator; I will simply install a one wire alternator. This is the alternator I'm looking at to use: March Performance P560 March Performance Alternators

I'm slightly puzzled on the distributor though. I found distributors for the engine I have in the truck and they use vacuum advance and have a set of wires and a connector coming off the housing that I don't know where it would go. I remember on the current distributor that a connector comes out of the engine wiring harness and plugs into the side of it as well as a set of wires coming off the distributor.

Does anyone know where these connectors go on the current distributor?


Here's what I'm looking at using to replace the distributor and it only has one connector aside from the vacuum advance.
Mallory 8556701C Mallory HEI Distributors

I am planning on ripping out as much wiring as possible. I will be buying new gauges (Fuel level, water temp., oil press., volts, trans temp.) and sending units since none of my gauges currently work. These gauges will be wired in with separate wires outside of any wiring harness. I will also be adding a toggle switch and a push button start switch for starting purposes. Thanks in advance.

 

The distributor you have pictured is a computer type distributor, much like the fuel injected distributor the truck would have had with the 351. These distributors do not have anything inside except a sensor wheel and pickup sensor, and the rotor on top to point the spark to the proper sparkplug wire. They have no advance weights down inside for the timing, and as you said no vacuum advance either. The computer did all the timing of the engine.

The distributors you have been running across with the vacuum advance and the two plugs are probably original Ford duraspark II distributors. These are what Ford used before they went to computer control. You can get one of the distributors, and also get a duraspark II module from any Ford/mercury car or truck, any size engine. The module will have the two connectors that plug into the 460 duraspark II distributor you buy. Just make sure the plastic piece where the wires go into the module are blue. This is how they code the modules, by the color of the plastic.

There will be a couple other wires you will have to run to the duraspark II module, one from the keyswitch, and one to the starter solenoid for the timing start retard feature(a nice feature to make the engine turn over easier in hot weather). You will have to run a resistor in the coil + wire for this system. Here's a diagram on how to hook it up.



And you can use the aftermarket distributor also.

 

Franklin, thanks for the info about the module. I hadn't seen anything mentioning a module with any of those other distributors.

Basically I want to rip out all the wiring and excess crap from the computer controlled stuff and fuel injection. Would I be able to get an engine bay harness from a carbureted truck and swap that in; or should I rip everything out and make my own harness? Does anyone have a full vehicle electrical schematic for an 88 F250 w/ F.I. 351?

Thanks again.

 

You can do some research on what engines were available during what years. I have heard some trucks did still have some of the plug-ins available for a regular non-fuel injection installation, because some of the engines were fuel injected and some where not. For instance in 85-86, the 302 was fuel injected, but the 351w and 460 were not. I am not sure about 88 though. If you found a truck that has the non fuel injected wiring, you could scope out where it plugs in and see if it would plug in on your truck. If that doesn't work, you could certainly get the whole complete harness from a carbed truck that was at least a 1987, and plug all of it in.

And your original idea of re-wiring everything would certainly work, thought it can be time consuming.