Just picked up an '86 XLT BII.

Grenade · Jul 21, 2017

So, when I was a young, young man, my father's friend had a Bronco of some description. I can't remember, being five years old at the time, if it was a FSB or a BII, but I suspect the latter, due to only us kids being able to fit into the back at the time. But ever since the first bumpy, tire-sliding dirt-road ride he gave us in that truck, I've had a bit of a love affair with them.

So, when I finally had the means, I went and started hunting on Craigslist. Every FSB was completely clapped out, or waaay outside my price range. The BII's, though, were just right. I looked around, and this one fell in my lap. Just needed a fuel pump, they said. Well, I've got the tools, I can do some work, and I've bought cars without hearing them run first numerous times, and it's worked out with a little elbow grease and an engine swap or two every time before.

So...this? I've never worked on an EECIV system before, and the threads and technical info on this forum have been goddamned invaluable, and I just want to thank you guys for that. Every problem I've come up against so far has been found and walked through by someone else, so it's saved me so much aggravation.

Just wanted to say thanks, you rock :icon_hornsup:

, and I owe more than a few of you a :beer:

.

RonD · Jul 21, 2017

Welcome to TRS

Good to see another BII being saved from the wrecking yard

I am sure you found this page: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.shtml

And LMC truck is a good source for older Ford interior and exterior parts: http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/fr/t.aspx

wildbill23c · Jul 22, 2017

Welcome to TRS. Yep the tech section of this forum is invaluable. I'm subscribed on a few other forums and NONE of them have a tech section, you have to spend hours searching for answers to common problems, or start another thread asking the same question for the 100th time.

I started out with a 1984 Ford Ranger XL 4x2 in high school. Started having issues with it and ended up selling it as I could never figure out what was going on with it, and none of the shops around town could either. Course after running across TRS and finding out about the feedback computer on the 2.8L engines and the duraspark conversion I have kicked myself for selling my Ranger. That truck was in excellent condition body wise and so was the interior with the exception of the cracked dash.

A few years ago I picked up a 1984 Ford Bronco 2, had it for about 2 years and finally got frustrated with the damn starter problem notorious of the 2.8L / manual transmission combinations plus the rusted out body areas I scrapped the vehicle...rather drove it to the scrap yard LOL. I waited another 2 years almost and ran across a 1988 Bronco 2 Eddie Bauer Edition. Overall its in pretty good condition, the PO was extremely up front about it and said the only major issue was the transmission was going in it, drove just fine as a 3 speed but once you shifted to overdrive it was like you put it in neutral. Well the A4LD is known to be weak, so I had it rebuilt, had the hood repainted as it was in pretty bad shape, I've done a bit of interior work on it but other than that it is now my only vehicle and I enjoy the hell out of it.

I plan on trying to get my hands on another Bronco 2 just to have for parts at some point in the future. I do need to overhaul the engine as its smoking and burning and leaking oil pretty bad.

Grenade · Jul 23, 2017

Well thank you, guys. Again.

Now, a real problem arises. I bought this truck non-running, and figured "eh, if I get tired of fighting with the 2.9, I'll just grab a 4.0 and stuff it in, harness and all." Well, I didn't realize how rare the 4.0 OHV engines are these days in my area, so I'm trying my hardest to get this little sucker to fire. Previous owner did bad, bad things to the harness, so I fixed what I could, mounted a new relay and remote switch for the fuel pumps to get them both firing, and discovered that my little jump pack does not have the cojones to turn the starter after fighting with it for two days. 300 amp jump pack is just not enough. Jumped it to another car, let it charge, and it's cranking strong, but it won't fire. Coil has power in start and run, so I thought maybe it was the injectors, but I pulled #1 plug and it reeked of gas. So, no spark. I'm not sure what the SPOUT connector looks like, but if it's what I think it is ,the jumper is missing, and I'm terrified that it might be that TFI module, or god forbid the sensor in the distributor. I don't know how to narrow this down. The test connector for the ECM is just...missing. I don't know what the PO did with it, so I'm a little stumped. Is there a way to test the TFI without trying to pull codes?

wildbill23c · Jul 24, 2017

Pull the TFI off and take it to Autozone, NAPA, etc they can bench test them, have them test it multiple times though, sometimes it may work once or twice and fail after the 4th or random times. The TFI's are notorious for failing, most of the time though they fail after the vehicle has been running, they get hot and fail, then cool down then works for a while again, gets hot and fails.

If the PO did a hack job on the wiring I'm betting your problem lies in the wiring. Go through every wire first, look around for a wiring schematic of the vehicle you'll need it.

Also, there's only 1 fuel pump in these, and its in the fuel tank. Unless of course this was another of the PO's hacks because they were too dumb to just replace the fuel pump in the tank. But you are getting fuel so that isn't the problem anyhow.

Hard to really pinpoint the problem without having the vehicle in front of us to diagnose.

Start with the basics first, wiring, spark plug wires, coil, TFI, etc. Its obviously getting fuel, and if there was spark it would at least fire up and idle at that point.

Slammin Sam · Jul 27, 2017

1986 to 1987 Bronco IIs had two fuel pumps, a low pressure in the tank and a high pressure pump on the drivers side frame rail. I know the 89 and 90 had one high pressure pump in the tank, but the single pump may have started in 88.

broncobuckinaround · Jul 29, 2017

first thing i would do if locate a donor 91 to 94 explorer. and grab the rear axle. and motor and swap them in. ill never look back again at the 2.9

Grenade · Aug 2, 2017

broncobuckinaround said:
first thing i would do if locate a donor 91 to 94 explorer. and grab the rear axle. and motor and swap them in. ill never look back again at the 2.9

I fully admit to laughing loud enough to startle the dog at that. If I can't finger this little crapstain out, I'm gonna probably go that route, and watch my girlfriend get absolutely furious with me doing an engine pull in the driveway. It was axle, harness, computers, engine, possibly dash, and driveshafts that I need to grab out of the donor vehicle, right?

'Cause, I'm at the point where I'm trying to manually trigger the injectors off of the battery, and I'm hearing nothing. I don't even know if the computer's grounding them, and if I have to do an EEC swap, a TFI swap, injector swap, AND rewire half of this truck, I'm going to just firebomb it. Or engine swap it. It depends on how I feel at the time.

JerryC · Aug 3, 2017

Grenade said:
I fully admit to laughing loud enough to startle the dog at that. If I can't finger this little crapstain out, I'm gonna probably go that route, and watch my girlfriend get absolutely furious with me doing an engine pull in the driveway. It was axle, harness, computers, engine, possibly dash, and driveshafts that I need to grab out of the donor vehicle, right?

'Cause, I'm at the point where I'm trying to manually trigger the injectors off of the battery, and I'm hearing nothing. I don't even know if the computer's grounding them, and if I have to do an EEC swap, a TFI swap, injector swap, AND rewire half of this truck, I'm going to just firebomb it. Or engine swap it. It depends on how I feel at the time.

I know your frustration. Mine was running poorly when I bought it. The next day, dead battery. Bad omen. I had to keep fixing one thing after another. One of the previous owners had a phobia of using crimp connectors or solder and I kept finding bad connections. Sometimes I'd find two bare wires twisted together and a piece of dried electrical tape nearby. The after market radio was entirely connected with electrical tape and it fried itself when enough wires lost their tape and started touching. That started me looking for more crappy wiring.

I came pretty close to just calling the scrap yard to haul it away in the first couple of months I owned it. Over the years I've put way too much money into it but looking back I've enjoyed fixing it and that was part of the reason to buy it. So I say it was worth it as I'd have blown the money elsewhere and probably wouldn't have had as much fun or satisfaction as I have with the little BII. The frustrating problems bring the most satisfaction when you fix them. Someday you'll be telling people that you got it running after others gave up on it.

My 2 cents, step away and chill. Stress and anger slow the thought process. Stepping away lets your brain work over the problem in the background and I find that that's when the good ideas hit me.

For possibly helpful tech...

My ECM test connector was kind of buried in the wiring by the fan housing/ blower motor area and the spout was laying up between the passenger valve cover and the intake.

You have fuel delivery or the plugs wouldn't be soaked in gas. Have you verified spark at the plugs?

I would just as a matter of course would do tune up and oil change on it. A new cap, rotor, wires and plugs, air filer, etc... If you suspect it might be bad, a new coil too. Do an oil change too because when you get it running you don't want to burn a bearing because of crap oil that may have accumulated water in it.

Grenade · Aug 3, 2017

JerryC said:
I know your frustration. Mine was running poorly when I bought it. The next day, dead battery. Bad omen. I had to keep fixing one thing after another. One of the previous owners had a phobia of using crimp connectors or solder and I kept finding bad connections. Sometimes I'd find two bare wires twisted together and a piece of dried electrical tape nearby. The after market radio was entirely connected with electrical tape and it fried itself when enough wires lost their tape and started touching. That started me looking for more crappy wiring.

I came pretty close to just calling the scrap yard to haul it away in the first couple of months I owned it. Over the years I've put way too much money into it but looking back I've enjoyed fixing it and that was part of the reason to buy it. So I say it was worth it as I'd have blown the money elsewhere and probably wouldn't have had as much fun or satisfaction as I have with the little BII. The frustrating problems bring the most satisfaction when you fix them. Someday you'll be telling people that you got it running after others gave up on it.

My 2 cents, step away and chill. Stress and anger slow the thought process. Stepping away lets your brain work over the problem in the background and I find that that's when the good ideas hit me.

For possibly helpful tech...

My ECM test connector was kind of buried in the wiring by the fan housing/ blower motor area and the spout was laying up between the passenger valve cover and the intake.

You have fuel delivery or the plugs wouldn't be soaked in gas. Have you verified spark at the plugs?

I would just as a matter of course would do tune up and oil change on it. A new cap, rotor, wires and plugs, air filer, etc... If you suspect it might be bad, a new coil too. Do an oil change too because when you get it running you don't want to burn a bearing because of crap oil that may have accumulated water in it.

That's pretty much where I'm at! I work on it for 4 or 5 hours until dark, then go inside, sit in front of a fan and browse through ideas of things I can do for it once I get it where I want it. D30 swaps, things like that. Had an idea for getting a full-size TTB and a 8.8, but I'm not quite at a level of knowledge where I can pull that off. Keeps me motivated, though. And the fact that my roommate has a 3 inch lift on his cherokee, and its the same height as my B2 with explorer 16s. He gets a little irritated when I point that out, which brings me glee.

As an addendum, I finally got around to actually checking the plugs. And lo and behold, after cranking the sucker and yanking them, there was only a little smidge of gas on each. Hence why it smelled, but like a dumbass, I didn't realize they were totally dry. Manually triggered the injectors, and not a ONE of them opened up while on the rail under pressure. So now all the injectors are out, soaking in a seafoam bath. I did verify spark at all plugs, coil is good, wires, cap and rotor are new. Dizzy is engaging with cam (obviously). I have 40 psi on the nose at the rail with the pumps on, so...I'm hoping that either these injectors clear out, or I have to buy a new pack of 'em. at 300 bucks, I'm hoping these clear. :sad:

BlackBII · Aug 3, 2017

You can buy a set of reman injectors on eBay for around $70.

This may be a silly question, but have you been able to get the engine to fire up with starting fluid? If it does, then you know that the spark plugs are firing and that the timing is set correctly.

Have you checked the resistance between the injectors' terminals? It should be 11-18ohms.

You can also test them manually to see if they click open with a 5 volt momentary switch so you don't fry them. (While I've never done it, they can apparently get fried if you send a continuous 12 volts through them.)

Grenade · Aug 3, 2017

BlackBII said:
You can buy a set of reman injectors on eBay for around $70.

This may be a silly question, but have you been able to get the engine to fire up with starting fluid? If it does, then you know that the spark plugs are firing and that the timing is set correctly.

Have you checked the resistance between the injectors' terminals? It should be 11-18ohms.

You can also test them manually to see if they click open with a 5 volt momentary switch so you don't fry them. (While I've never done it, they can apparently get fried if you send a continuous 12 volts through them.)

Yes sir, it fires right up with starting fluid. Doesn't even knock, strangely enough. Resistance for each of the injectors was 14-15 ohms. And I did tap them with voltage to pop each one, and none of them fired while under fuel pressure. So I'm assuming that the pintles are just jammed shut with varnish and crap. If not, I'm going to ebay, per your tip (which thank god you told me that, because I wouldn't ever have thought of that).

JerryC · Aug 4, 2017

If the injectors are gummed up badly, I'd consider flushing the fuel system. They managed to send at least some gas to the cylinders before they jammed up so the crud came from somewhere.

Maybe hook up a hose to the schrader valve at the fuel rail and use the fuel pump to push some out and see what it looks like.

Grenade · Aug 4, 2017

Interestingly, this is basically on the menu today. I have the fuel rail and upper intake off, injectors out of it, so what I'm probably going to do is just put a bucket under the rail and kick the pumps on to run the tank dry. The original fuel filter is still on the vehicle, and still flowing good, so if there's any crap that makes it past the sock on the pump, it'll show up there, I bet. Then I have to go get 5 gallons of gas, put it in the tank, dump some injector cleaner in there, and flush the injectors properly.

Or am I massively retarded? Also, where do I get the o-rings for these things? I'm going to go hit up Napa before I do this in case they do, but I just KNOW I'm going to shred those seals, so I want them on hand.

BlackBII · Aug 4, 2017

The part number for the fuel injector o-rings should be 19238128

You can also buy whole kits that come with o-rings, filters(which you should replace), spacers, pintle caps off eBay for really cheap. I am not sure if Autozone/Napa will have the filters.

Just picked up an '86 XLT BII.

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