silly rednecks

[Hotrodlincoln]

That doesn't sound so bad. Mine had two wires under the dash coming from the fuse panel... going to nothing, with exposed ends. A wire from the negative on the coil (probably for a tachometer that isn't there anymore) through the firewall and dangling with exposed end under the dash.
One wire (large, maybe 14 awg) straight from the battery (no fuse), through the firewall, to a light switch (the kind in the wall in your house) that was laying on the floor. A wire from that going up inside the dash behind the radio, not connected.
Another wire fort eh fuse box, to a rocker switch, then out through the firewall into the engine bay, then ending right next to the coolant reservoir. I think it was for the fog lights, which weren't connected, but have 100watt bulbs in them. That's a lot of power for one small rocker switch (usually rated 10 amp or less) to carry.
And that's just the stuff that was still connected to something. There were about a dozen other wires just randomly routed through the truck here and there just cut off.

But as for your current issue.

I don't think it has to do with the ACT sensor. If you disconnected the battery for anything it reset the ECU and it had to figure out all of it's settings again. Unplug something like the ACT, MAP, or the O2 sensor and start it so the ECU will go into failsafe mode and see if it runs better or worse.

 

[hkerekes]

That doesn't sound so bad. Mine had two wires under the dash coming from the fuse panel... going to nothing, with exposed ends. A wire from the negative on the coil (probably for a tachometer that isn't there anymore) through the firewall and dangling with exposed end under the dash.
One wire (large, maybe 14 awg) straight from the battery (no fuse), through the firewall, to a light switch (the kind in the wall in your house) that was laying on the floor. A wire from that going up inside the dash behind the radio, not connected.
Another wire fort eh fuse box, to a rocker switch, then out through the firewall into the engine bay, then ending right next to the coolant reservoir. I think it was for the fog lights, which weren't connected, but have 100watt bulbs in them. That's a lot of power for one small rocker switch (usually rated 10 amp or less) to carry.
And that's just the stuff that was still connected to something. There were about a dozen other wires just randomly routed through the truck here and there just cut off.

But as for your current issue.

I don't think it has to do with the ACT sensor. If you disconnected the battery for anything it reset the ECU and it had to figure out all of it's settings again. Unplug something like the ACT, MAP, or the O2 sensor and start it so the ECU will go into failsafe mode and see if it runs better or worse.

I figured out the whole problem. The wiring harness is hacked and butchered. It looks like spaghetti and meatballs after I took off all the loom.


I am going to try and rewire what i can tomorrow, If i cant get it right I will just hit up the junk yard. He had the right idea but i believe he had the signal outputs for the sensors connected instead of the power. I believe that is why i was frying sensors.

 

[hkerekes]

I rewired the harness, and it runs much better. The sensors are outputting the correct voltage and it idles much better. It still gets a little what sounds like spark knock under load in high gear but otherwise its fine.

The tapping seems to be gone when the engine is cold and as soon as it warms up it comes back.

I assume that the thinner oil has an easier time getting into the clogged lifters?

Im running a 5w30 with a little seafoam in it. It definetly taps less than it used to and it never would stop tapping when it was cold.

 

[jhammel85]

Did you pull out the ENTIRE harness? Basically rewiring the entire truck?

While you were rewiring, what did you find that was wrong? Alot of rubbed out areas in the wiring?

Good Job man!

 

[hkerekes]

Did you pull out the ENTIRE harness? Basically rewiring the entire truck?

While you were rewiring, what did you find that was wrong? Alot of rubbed out areas in the wiring?

Good Job man!

I red did all of the connections for the injectors, ect, act, tps, some of the tfi, all of them were taped with electrical tape. He had the power wires to the tps,act,ect into the injector power wires with some wierd resistor or some shit i dunno whatever he had. One is 12v and one is 5v.

It still has a little spark knock in 4th and 5th under a load. I think the timing might be off. Otherwise it runs good now.

 

[Hotrodlincoln]

Well it sounds like you got it mostly straightened out. Too bad you can't do the same with the 2.9 as us 2.8 owners do when doing the duraspark conversions. Just ditch everything except the starter and alternator wiring, coolant temp sensor and oil pressure sensor wires, and 3 wires for the distributor. Makes the engine bay so simple!

 

[hkerekes]

Well it sounds like you got it mostly straightened out. Too bad you can't do the same with the 2.9 as us 2.8 owners do when doing the duraspark conversions. Just ditch everything except the starter and alternator wiring, coolant temp sensor and oil pressure sensor wires, and 3 wires for the distributor. Makes the engine bay so simple!

I need to get a new harness. Some of teh wires are too short to put any loom on them and it looks pretty bad.

It still was acting up when it got hot. I figured the TFI module might be bad as well so i replaced it. I think that was the problem all along, there was basically no grease on the back of the module or the distributor. I think the TFI was working but overheating when hot. So that is why when the truck was cold it ran fine. It never shutoff on me tho.


I still get a small amount of spark knock under load in 4th and 5th when it is hot. I run 89 octane but will switch to 93 or 91 to see if it stops. Teh timing might be a bit too far advanced so i will have to check that too.



I found more rednecking with the rear brakes. The ebrake didn't hold the truck so i took the drums off. They were original drums and totally rusted and worn out. From what i can tell he put new rear brake lines and cylinders on. He realized the pads were low so he just threw a set on and reused every spring, wire, adjuster and the drums. The adjuster wasn't working and the pads were not touching the drums evenly.

So $150 later i have functioning rear brakes and the ebrake works.


The radio had also been changed and it stayed on when you turned the truck off. He had the power, remote and blue antenna wires all connected with electrical tape. They were taped to some speaker wire that went directly into the fuse box. The remote and power worked at teh connector. Some people do stupid shit.