emiss light

[jaredssc17]

just got a truck going. a 87 ranger 2.9 5 speed. runs great but got the emiss light on. i didnt ck the codes but cant think of anything off the top of my head it could be. new fuel filter, o2, pluggs, cap, roter, wires, accel super stock coil. ne one have something like this happen?

 

[MAKG]

EMISS != check engine

All that EMISS light means is that your ignition has been on for 2000 hours since the last time it was reset.

With an '87, the "check engine light" is a pair of leads on the self-test doghouse connector.

 

[Psychopete]

EMISS != check engine

Could you draw him a diagram of the connector in ascii using "edit" in DOS^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H"VI" in Linux?

Haha, just kidding.

Does that mean the computer memory has had power for that long, or for some reason the PCM has been "on" for 83 days and 8 hours?

Pete

 

[MAKG]

The PCM has nonvolatile memory for the purpose. It just means the key has been turned on for 2000 hours. You'll find people who say 60K miles, but that just assumes an average 30 MPH (a 2.9L with no cruise control and no RABS doesn't have any electronic speed sensor at all, so no modules know the vehicle speed -- and the odometer is mechanical as well).

 

[AllanD]

MAKG,

That EMISS light on an '87 Ranger has NOTHING to do with the PCM
or engine management.

there is a little module mounted above the glovebox opening next to
the Key-in/Headlight-on Door ajar buzzer.

It is called the "Infered Mileage Sensor" it is connected to the 12V+ Run circuit
and turns that light on when the timer times out.

Again, it has NO connection to the enegine management.

The BEST way to deal with it it to remove the module, disassemble it
Remove the circuit card from inside it reassemble the enclosure WITHOUT
the circuit card then reinstall the enclosure.

The reason for this is that if you simply remove it the connector dangles
and interferes with the opening and closing of the glovebox. and there
is nothing convenient to wire tie it to to keep the fukr out of the way.

'87's HAVE a CEL in the dash , but the circuit mask on the back
of the instrument usually isn't punched out for a lamp socket.
I had to carefully cut the lamp socket hole in my cluster circuit
AND I had to run a seperate wire to the empty position in one of
the cluster plugs so I could have a CEL when I did my 4.0 conversion.


BTW, my 1987 2.9 powered Ranger came without RABS ('88 is the first year) and didn't have cruise control, yet it has a VSS.

Why a VSS on a Non-RABS Non-Cruise 2.9? the speed limiter doesn't work without it.

BTW the A4LD won't work right without a VSS either.




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[MAKG]

Speed limiter on an '86-'87? What speed limiter?

My 1986 didn't have any VSS. There were no tone rings and no VRS's anywhere on the vehicle (except inside the distributor). The end of the speedometer cable had ONLY a drivegear and an O-ring on it; no sensor. Vehicles of that vintage with cruise had a speed sensor around the driven end of the speedometer cable.

The '87 tach cluster I grabbed for it had a fully punched instrument cluster, just no bulb. That was easily fixed. But of course I had to run the wire for it.

But yeah, the PCM isn't relevant to the EMISS light. A simpler solution to taking the module apart (aside from just resetting it) is to pull the EMISS bulb (and use it for the CEL perhaps).

 

[jaredssc17]

well i toke that box out and trashed it. i put mt computer in the glove box area. it seems to run fine i think i'll just pull the light out.

 

[almostclueless]

I'm fairly sure my 87 and my parents' 86 BII both had RABS.

 

[MAKG]

I'm fairly sure my 87 and my parents' 86 BII both had RABS.

'87, maybe. '86, no way. It's easily checked even for a heavily modified vehicle by finding the speed sensor on the top of the left side of the rear differential. The tone ring lives right behind the ring gear.

 

[AllanD]

Speed limiter on an '86-'87? What speed limiter?

My 1986 didn't have any VSS. There were no tone rings and no VRS's anywhere on the vehicle (except inside the distributor). The end of the speedometer cable had ONLY a drivegear and an O-ring on it; no sensor. Vehicles of that vintage with cruise had a speed sensor around the driven end of the speedometer cable.

The '87 tach cluster I grabbed for it had a fully punched instrument cluster, just no bulb. That was easily fixed. But of course I had to run the wire for it.

But yeah, the PCM isn't relevant to the EMISS light. A simpler solution to taking the module apart (aside from just resetting it) is to pull the EMISS bulb (and use it for the CEL perhaps).

the instrument cluster is many times harder to get out than that stupid little Infered mileage sensor module.
That module involves emptying the glovebox and removing two screws.

the instrument cluster? it's Eight screw just to get the dash facia off of a Gen1 Ranger then the four screws for that and the two connectors (what I call the double jointed wrist trick)

and as for resetting it? I've crossed paths with ~30 of those modules
I have yet to find one that WOULD reset no matter how many times the button was pushed... the problem is that there is that the button is a conductive rubber disc (that dry rots) and a "pad" on the circuit board
that oxidizes... thus it simly CANNOT make contact

Mabey they would have reset back in 1990 or so, but Mine already wouldn't
reset in 1995. I doubt you'll find one that's resettable now.

as for RABS?
On an '86-87 Ranger? No.

RABS was Bronco2 ONLY in 1987.
Rabs was introduced for rangers in 1988
(and then mostly on the supercabs)

My '88 short box didn't have it and my '87 Bronco2 did.


BTW Mike, you keep forgetting that you live in LaLa land and what you find has no connection (rational or otherwise) to what the REST of us NON-Cali people will find on vehicles.

YOU keep forgetting that.
I'll keep reminding you.

My NON-Cruise, NON-automatic 2.9 Ranger supercab came from the factory with a VSS on the transmission.

It's there for the 115mph speed limiter provision built into
ALL 2.9 computers, but for practical purposes only the 2wd trucks actually had the speed limiter, because the only way a
gen1 4x4 could get to 115mph was AFTER the Myth Busters
team installed a rocket motor in the bed.

IF you have cruise control on a Ranger 1994 or earlier
you have a VSS.

If you have an A4LD it won't WORK without a VSS.
TCC is trigered on a road speed parameter suplied by? VSS.

Later A4LD's 3-4 shift solenoid? VSS.

I've "fixed" an A4LD that wouldn't shift into OD
by taking the vehicle on a road test and IGNORING the transmission.. I tried to activate the cruise control...
when it wouldn't work I replaced the VSS, and suddenly
it shifted into OD AND wonder of wonders the cruise control
suddenly worked!

I knew what I was looking for of course.
(If it had been something else that $11.50/100#
offered by the scrap yard would have been too
much temptation to resist

The speed limiter was a wonderful idea, but it was kinda pointless because I only found it ONCE and I was specifically looking for it at the time.

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[MAKG]

Allan, CA vehicles are really not all that different from "49 state" vehicles., with a couple of exceptions. You seem to think one only runs across CA vehicles in CA; the truth is that there is quite a lot of migration, and out-of-state-origin vehicles are quite common. In the 80s, people used to drive to Reno to pick up a new vehicle, because they believed the emissions in CA was hurting performance (that might have been true 10-15 years earlier, but not after fuel injection). The main differences are in calibration.

And FYI, I reset that EMISS module light by pushing the button, twice.

I find it easier to remove a 1st-2nd gen instrument cluster than to go behind the glovebox. At least for me, it's less of a contortion, even considering the speedo cable.

 

[AllanD]

ITt's EASY to get that sensor out

You empty the glovebox and "pinch in the sides" to let it hang straight down

the two screws that hold that module up go in vertically from the bottom
at the top "lip" of the glovebox opening.

It's not that difficult.

I've had my dash facia out probably 50 times and even with
an electric screwdriver (or the Snap-On Ratcheting screwdriver
that some people who know me have joked is a part of my hand)
it's still not easier than yanking that module.

Many people insist on doing things the hard way.
Like all the people who pull the parking brake assembly
and slipping clutch pedals into their exsisting bracket to
avoid pulling their steering column.

Typing the average "Talk through" manual transmission conversion
posting takes me twice as long as it does to pull one column and
replace it with another in my truck.

And I have done that several times, usually to repair breakage
Either the "rack gear" that drives the ignition switch
or the pivot trunion for the tilt mechanism, but on two occasions
the top bearing went bad.

Stuff breaks in 394,000 miles.

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