93 DIS ignition mod

[piece]

Got a used 93 Ranger xlt 2.3 5 speed fairly decent shape with supposedly 128k. The guy said it had no problems but after I got it home I see he has been driving around on 4 plugs only, with the rear coil pack unplugged. If you plug the rear coil pack in, the truck will start and run fine, but after driving a ways it will backfire and die. I suspect I am missing half the signal from the crankshaft sensor but I need to build a test lamp and check the signal. I replaced the ICM, no help, but I suspect it's the wrong ICM, the original is gray. Spout connector is good, I did find bare wires on the crankshaft sensor plug to the ICM so I suspect bad ICM, bad PCM or bad crk sensor or bad harness. Right now it's driving around fine on one coil and 4 plugs. I see the previous owner replaced the EEC relay, the coil pack, timing belt, serpentine belt, new plugs and wires and I also replaced the ignition switch. I can drive around using either set of plugs connected to the front coil pack, it actually has quite a bit of power. I can't find a good technical description of how the DIS operates but I think that the second set of plugs only runs after the truck is running. The second coil has it's own harness and inputs from the ICM and the timing is controlled by the PCM from the second signal from the crk sensor. What I'd like to do is cut off and reconnect the 2 signal wires from the rear coil directly to the wires controlling the front coil. This would make it full-time 8 plug operation, 2 plugs fire on compression and exhaust. The signal to fire the front coil would fire both coils. Is there any mods on this? My concerns are low coil impedance causing extra current from the ICM and possible timing issues. Or possibly a separate ignition module that I could use to run the second coil at the same timing as the front coil. Before I try this out and instantly fry my ICM etc I was wondering if anyone has experience or know-how to convert to full time 8 plug operation.

 

[myold96]

go to bthe wrecking yard and buy the plugs for the sensors solder them in then buy a rear coil pack there also. if that helps then buy new ones i suspect there is a short in the rear coils that shows up after it heats up