Derek's 1988 Town Car

[sly]

The brown one is the ECA relay. White one is the WOT AC cutout relay. I've not seen new pigtails in a while. If it comes to that, probably just replace with standard bosch style relays in a dedicated relay box and replace that proprietary mess. It's a job to do, but yeah, won't be the first. But yeah, since the connectors aren't bad, don't mess with them. Just clean them and go. The relay that is used for replacing the ECA relay works for all of them in that corner even though they aren't listed as working for them because the aftermarket relays are not keyed like the ford ones. That one replacement relay should fit all of the pigtails.

[sly]

Here's the diagram for CV/MGM models. Town Car seems to have an additional relay in the pack and in different positions. Not sure what that extra one is for.

[DerekTheGreat]

Thank you, sly. It says the Irish parts store has them in stock, I'll pick one up today. Parts Geek lists some pigtails, but I'm not sure if they'll work. As you said, going to try to clean mine up & go.

Forgot to mention, at some point during my diag work, the fuel pump kept running with the key on, engine off. I'm used to them priming for a few seconds in that situation, but not constantly running. By the time I got it to start up normally, it wasn't doing that. What causes that and is there something else I should worry about?

Edit: Sweet diagram, thank you for posting. Hmm, maybe the additional relay is for the air compressor?

[friskyfrankie]

Isn't the diagram pointing to the same relay for both ECM and A/C WOT?

[sly]

Yeah, not sure why the fuel pump kept running. As long as it doesn't keep running with key off. I think once the relays are all sorted, that won't happen. If it does, might have an ECM issue as that grounds the coil for the fuel pump to turn it on.

[sly]

Isn't the diagram pointing to the same relay for both ECM and A/C WOT?

No. There's two relays in that can, one inside and one outside. They clip in from the bottom.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, not sure why the fuel pump kept running. As long as it doesn't keep running with key off. I think once the relays are all sorted, that won't happen. If it does, might have an ECM issue as that grounds the coil for the fuel pump to turn it on.

That's what I suspect- that extra wonkiness happened due to the relay fiasco. Hoping that's all it was and that none of this damaged the ECM, but I think I've got a spare. Of course it hasn't been tested in probably eight years. I also remember them being a royal PITA to fish out.

The parts store won't have the relay until this afternoon, but the car fired right up yesterday after work like it used to. Taking that as a good sign.