My '85 MGM, "Maisa"

[DerekTheGreat]

You already put a reman ECM in there, right? I wonder if the signal is getting to the ECM though. My '85 blew out a muffler due to gas loading. That was a fun day, romped on it, took foot off gas to coast back down to speed limit, foot back on gas to resume cruise and BOOM!

[Arquemann]

You already put a reman ECM in there, right? I wonder if the signal is getting to the ECM though. My '85 blew out a muffler due to gas loading. That was a fun day, romped on it, took foot off gas to coast back down to speed limit, foot back on gas to resume cruise and BOOM!

Oh it's definitely getting a signal from the lambda to the ECM, since it ran worse with the previous sensor plugged vs unplugged. Haven't yet tried if unplugging the new sensor makes a difference, but obviously it didn't fix the problem so it doesn't really matter.
I'm pretty sure my issue is related to fuel mixtures at closed / low throttle situations. But I seriously can't figure out any more things that would affect that.

I don't know if I really want to keep on troubleshooting the CFI anymore, I have no real interest in keeping it long term anyways, since it doesn't really have enough oomph for taking on-ramps and overtaking comfortably.

[sly]

If you can find the right carb with the proper lever for the trans, it would probably be an easy swap... the compatible trans lever being the most difficult bit to find IIRC.

[gadget73]

if the sensor shows its rich, it probably is, and its doing it for some reason. bad MAP signal, leaky injectors, vacuum leaks that cause bad MAP signal, a bad MAP, incorrect fuel pressure, all possibilities. Have you ever put a vacuum gauge on it to see what it runs at? Low manifold vacuum causes the MAP to tell the ECM the engine is under load, which fattens up the fuel mixture. If the engine makes low vacuum because its got low compression or leaks or something else a carb isn't going to fix that, you'll just have a different fuel mixer on top of an engine that has other problems.

[Arquemann]

if the sensor shows its rich, it probably is, and its doing it for some reason. bad MAP signal, leaky injectors, vacuum leaks that cause bad MAP signal, a bad MAP, incorrect fuel pressure, all possibilities. Have you ever put a vacuum gauge on it to see what it runs at? Low manifold vacuum causes the MAP to tell the ECM the engine is under load, which fattens up the fuel mixture. If the engine makes low vacuum because its got low compression or leaks or something else a carb isn't going to fix that, you'll just have a different fuel mixer on top of an engine that has other problems.

Engine warm, idles at 22-23 inHg. Checked with a T-piece from the MAP vacuum line. About 21 inHg at the Evap line right off the intake. I've hosed down the engine bay a couple times with starter fluid, found nothing. Then again I've gone through the vacuum lines with a hand pump more times than I can remember.

Like I mentioned in my list of stuff, MAP checks out good, injectors and fpr is new, pressure supposedly good, ECT and ACT check good. Diagnosing has taken so long that we're going in circles.

[Arquemann]

Got the new front brakes installed, and new wheel bearings aswell. No more warped rotors!
Otherwise things went smoothly, but I fought quite a bit trying to push the pistons back into the calipers.
Also as I was turning the wheels with the car off, the PS pump got overfilled as it wasn't pumping stuff into the box, so it spat out a bunch of ATF through breather hole in the fill cap...


Shiny! But jeezus the rotors are insanely heavy, and packing and installing the bearings wasn't exactly fun (first time for me). Maybe if I'll have this car for long, I might consider the unit bearing upgrade from a newer panther.
Interestingly I was able to tighten the axle nuts way too tight even by hand, without even a socket.
Got them pretty well set and took a couple kilometer test run and they didn't heat up at all so it should be fine.
While I was there, I also greased the ball joints and outer tie rods.

Still a couple cruise nights left for this season, probably taking the car to storage sometime in October.
CFI is going in the bin when spring comes.

[Arquemann]

Another thing done that's kinda bugged me from the start; the peeling paint on the rear window trim. I picked up a can of matte white a while back.

The vinyl half top and rear trim were once Canyon Red, but have been painted white years ago. While the top is in okay-ish shape, the paint was peeling from the trim.
Boy am I glad I took off the bottom window trim instead of masking it aswell. There was about 36 years of semi-decomposed crap and pollen in there. No rust though.
After digging most of it out:


Before: (old pic on the left cuz planning n stuff)


After:

Probably should've bought a natural white, but there wasn't any of that in the general store, and the pure white can was 3,99€.
If the vinyl requires attention at some point, this thing's gonna get slicktopped. I don't mind a full vinyl top, but half tops are always kinda ugly. All or nothing.

[Mainemantom]

Are you going to reuse the plastic clips that hold on the trim, or get new ones ?

[Arquemann]

Are you going to reuse the plastic clips that hold on the trim, or get new ones ?

I was already missing a couple but I'll reuse the ones I have. I probably should find some replacements at some point. Generic most likely.

[gadget73]

its sort of an oddball but exact replacements can be had. Pretty sure the ones I bought were for a Mustang coupe, they use them to hold the lower rear glass trim in. My Continental also uses them and I think only 3 were still intact.

[Mainemantom]

Ford part number is: E0AZ-5442413B 14 pieces to a pack.

[Arquemann]

Ford part number is: E0AZ-5442413B 14 pieces to a pack.

Google doesn't find anything with that PN. I don't know if its the same on all boxes but the clips I had were like button heads that slid sideways on to the nubs on the car.

[Mainemantom]

I took the part number from the package of nos I have in stock. Yes they are round with a slot on the back.
There are available through three sellers on Ebay right now. Prices are reasonable.

[87gtVIC]

Nice. Common part to degrade over time. Happened to my car too.

[Arquemann]

I've been thinking through the upcoming carb swap, and while the basics are pretty clear to me, I've been pondering on the two dozen little things; mostly electrical.
So I've got a few questions I've been thinking on:

-I'd like to go with either the funky Duraspark/HEI combination setup or just a DSII setup (the bastard HEI setup seems easier and simpler though). So the switched power should probably just come from where?

-What stops working when I remove the engine harness completely? What ties into the engine harness?
-Are the dash dummy lights a part of the engine harness or alternator harness?
-How about fuel pump and it's relay?
-AC surely is a part of the body harness?
-Does the AC clutch have a WOT switch on CFI? Because it doesn't seem to act like it has one.

Most likely I'll need to run switched power:
-Fuel pump relay
-Coil (according to http://www.carbdford.com/tech/HEI/hei.htm the TFI coil should be fine, but the wiring is probably a part of the engine harness)
-Cruise control?
-AC relay?

If someone has the engine wiring diagram for CFI and maybe alternator harness diagram, those would be greatly appreciated!