!995 Mercury Grand Marquis EGR Solenoid Sensor Question

[friskyfrankie]

A friend of a friend wants me to test his EGR system and we need to know, on the EGR Solenoid, it has two ports. one on top of the other, which is input and which is output. Since I don't know what past work was done (he says Midas changed it a few years ago) which one is the input (from a vacuum tree or intake) and which is the output to the EGR Valve. We could simply swap the lines as they currently exist but what happens if the previous mechanic did it incorrectly?

[massacre]

I remember having EGR issues on my 93 and i threw tons of parts at it and wasted so much time testing and monitoring everything.

The only thing that made the CEL go away was removing the intake elbow and cleaning the EGR passages underneath it.

[friskyfrankie]

I remember having EGR issues on my 93 and i threw tons of parts at it and wasted so much time testing and monitoring everything.

The only thing that made the CEL go away was removing the intake elbow and cleaning the EGR passages underneath it.

Usually the problem but my friend "assures" me Midas did that. I'll put vacuum on the EGR, with the engine running to see if it dies. If so, the EGR (which I will test separately) and passages are clean (or partially so). Still curious as to which port on the solenoid is the input and which is the output.

[massacre]

10-4
Isn't that vacuum connector "staggered"?
One side is longer than the other, can only go on 1 way?

[friskyfrankie]

Yes, they are "staggered" with one shorter than the other. Not sure how that settles out knowing which is input and which is output. They "look" to be the same diameter unlike the ports on the DPFE sensor.

[gadget73]

thats the vac regulator that opens it. I believe the one at the bottom is vacuum, the upper one is to the valve. If its backwards it creates a vacuum leak by sucking through the vent.

[friskyfrankie]

thats the vac regulator that opens it. I believe the one at the bottom is vacuum, the upper one is to the valve. If its backwards it creates a vacuum leak by sucking through the vent.

Thanks for that info! Never know if the person that worked on the car before you installed things correctly. Got doctor appointments in bunches the next few weeks but when I get to it I'll see if that is the present situation or not. The confirmation certainly does help lots!!