Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Topic: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon) (Read 75090 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #45 – May 16, 2025, 11:01:07 PM

OK, back to the wiring.

Seeing as I got pretty much most of the bulk of the wiring to the bulkhead connector from the engine bay, I need to get in the car and sort out the wiring from inside or the rear of the car to the bulkhead connector.

The throttle pedal and the DataLink Connector are at the dash, but the rest (Fuel and emissions) is at the rear. That means I needed to first tackle the nasty bit of removing the interior and headliner, as I knew it was all going to be gross.

I started to get the headliner out first, because I knew it was going to make a mess.
I was right.

So much mouse poop.

I'll be able to reuse the front board, but the rear one I'll probably have to make a replacement out of ABS sheet. The mouse nests were worse back there.

After that, I pulled out the rest of the trunk area panels and the rear seat.

It's amazing how much dust/dirt is on EVERYTHING inside this car behind all of the panels. Gonna take some time just to clean that all up.

I did unfortunately find some soft spots in the floor under the rear seat base.

Kind of not surprised, as there was water ingress due to door strikers not having bushings on them. Should be an easy repair, though.
Both lower rear quarter panel areas behind the rear wheels was also full of mouse house stuff. No corrosion, though.

I took all of this out, as I needed to trace the stock FP wiring back and de what I needed to do for the new stuff.
The original FP relay is on the PS rear, and the inertial switch is on the DS rear. This thing also had the dual FP set-up, which is getting replaced with one.
Going to remove all of the wiring to the front pump and rework the rest for the new pump set-up.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #46 – May 22, 2025, 12:53:40 AM

Quote

as I knew it was all going to be gross

Gross and then some. Unfortunately I can smell those photos.

Otherwise good stuff. For 29 locations that bulkhead connector is fairly compact. Duetsch connectors?

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #47 – May 22, 2025, 10:22:34 AM

Quote from: bodyman – on May 22, 2025, 12:53:40 AM

For 29 locations that bulkhead connector is fairly compact. Duetsch connectors?

Yeah, it's a Deutsch HP20 series connector. It's got 12, 16, and 20 sized terminals. which worked out great for what I needed.

Been a busy week getting back to work FT after the surgery, so limited progress other than researching switching some things around on FP control/power and making a decision on what needs to be done for working AC. More details on all of that when I get some more interior wiring done.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #48 – June 02, 2025, 08:39:54 PM

OK, finally got the parts I was waiting on.

That's a FPDM (Fuel Pump Driver Module) from an '02 Mustang, but pretty standard for many of the '99-04 Fords with the returnless fuel systems.

Originally, I was going to try and use the '11 FPCM (Fuel Pump Control Module), but was going to have to find a way to spoof the signal from the RCM (Restraints Control Module). After '05, the cars did away with the inertia switch and used impact sensors over CANBUS to feed the RCM and that would be used to shut down the fuel system in case of an issue. I was going to feed a 10Hz square wave signal to the FPCM, which is supposed to be the "all clear" to allow pump function. That still may work, but I figured there had to be a way to do things without that.

Not having spent much, if any time with Mustangs past '00-'01, I never even knew about all of this.

Anyway, the car with the FPDM also used an inertia switch, to interrupt power to the fuel system in case of an crash, and still modulated the fuel pressure based on the need.
I'm replacing the earlier "white button" inertia switch with the later "red button" one, which is rated to carry the full current load for the fuel system, instead of just a control voltage for the the old FP relay.

This was the last of the stuff I needed to get my fuel system stuff wired up and be able to start doing power-up and systems checks.

I still have a good day of getting things wired up to the bulkhead connector to do these tests, but I finally have pieces in hand to hopefully make that work.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #49 – June 14, 2025, 09:10:29 PM

So, I got things to the point where I'm able to do this.

Got the PATS delete tune flashed and no smoke escaped from the wiring harnesses as I've put together, so I consider that a win.

Only have the bare essentials together to power things up, but a lot of needed things aren't wired yet.

Lots of DTCs and no crank, but the fuel pump is "priming" as it's running full voltage, but seeing as there is no fuel in the system to pressurize, it's not going to see pressure and shut the pump down. It appears that the earlier FDMP is working as it should, and I maybe don't need to deal with the FPCM.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #50 – September 13, 2025, 09:42:50 PM

Working when I can.

Switched to using an HP Tuner instead of the SCT, as I wanted more control over things. Have that all set up and moving forward.

Otherwise, just been basically chasing down some trouble codes and sorting out the bits of wiring I hadn't done at the bulkhead connector yet.

One of the things I needed to do was sort out the fuel pump and tank, and get it close-ish to being mounted. Before mounting a tank, I needed to prep the floorpan, as I was going to seal things up a bit, because this car was going to get driven on the regular.

I grabbed a case of this stuff

It's a wax-based encapsulator/sealer.
I'll be doing the entire underside of the car with it, but just got the rear cleaned up so far.

The closer stuff was still a bit wet when the pic was taken, but you can see that it dries to kind of a satin finish.

Next was to get the new fuel pump installed.
I'm using a Deatschwerks DW200 (similar to a Walbro 255hp), that I needed to modify the hanger to get it mounted.
Before finalizing things, I wanted to check to make sure things were in the proper spots. (You can see the test spacer I made up in this shot (green))

When I was happy with how it all was, I reprinted my spacer out of some PEKK material, which is gasoline resistant. Modded the pick-up tube and installed the correct submersible fuel hose.

Next project is to drop the valve body out of the 6R80 to replace a faulty lead frame (Shift position sensor), as a few of the DTCs are pointing that direction.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #51 – February 28, 2026, 06:50:05 PM

Back on this thing this week, too.

last weekend I managed to get a little time to get the valve body back into the 6R80 with the new lead frame.

Once I sort out the trans cooler and the lines, I can get the trans filled up. Looks like I'm going to use a cooler from a '05-10 car.

The other thing I needed to do was get this mounted up.

I used the ICT Billet bracket and mounted it up on the DS. Made up a quick bracket to attach it to the inner fender area and added a small support link to help keep it from cantilevering around.

I have a plan for the filler, as the stock reservoir that I got with the pump isn't really going to work. I'm going to CAD up something and print it out of PA6 Nylon. It'll be more of a fill funnel, than a reservoir, but it'll take up less room and do what I need it to do.

Speaking of 3D printing. I found an STL online for the "Starfish" center cap that didn't have the prancing pony on it, so I printed some up out of ABS. Going to clean them up and paint them silver.

I had also needed a little inspiration to kick-start me back on this project, so I stuck a control arm/strut/spindle on the car to check and see how the wheels/tires were going to clear the fenders. This car is running a modular K-member and SN-95 FCAs that I moved in 3/4" to get the proper width, Looks like my clearances will be good. (There is a spacer between the wheel and the hub that is the same thickness as a rotor).

I'm also close to connecting a fuel system. I need to replace the busted fitting at the fuel rail, but the tank and pump/etc are all assembled and I think it works as it should, but I have yet to pressurize the (returnless) system. Fitting on order for that.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #52 – March 02, 2026, 11:23:57 AM

Looks good.

I would suggest painting the inside and out of the PA6 Nylon if using as a funnel since it will be porous. It will also help with any UV degradation if it has any exposure.

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #53 – March 02, 2026, 01:49:32 PM

Quote from: Mikey97D – on March 02, 2026, 11:23:57 AM

I would suggest painting the inside and out of the PA6 Nylon if using as a funnel since it will be porous. It will also help with any UV degradation if it has any exposure.

The current Volvo reservoir is PA6-66, which is what I'd be printing with. Not going to see much UV exposure underhood. The chemical resistance is the key factor I'm after and heat will be a non-issue.

If there is an issue, I can always try PEKK, but for now, I figure it's safe to use what the OEs did. :)

Re: Oops, I did it again. I bought a new car. (1986 Ford LTD wagon)

Reply #54 – March 03, 2026, 08:59:16 AM

The PA6 isn't the problem for leaks, it's the printing process does not seal well. The paint will seal the surfaces for you.