Ecm replacement
Thread Starter
Kiazord
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 57
Likes: 1
From: Marietta Ohio
Ecm replacement
I went down yesterday and pulled the front tank on my 87 f-150 4.9L 4 speed.
Drained out 9 gallons of orange and brown gas. The tank looks almost new it's still fairly shiny with minimal surface rust. The pump inside also looks almost new. I held the pump in my hand and turned the key over and didn't get any vibrations or hear it make any noises. I didn't have a helper to help me figure out which wires were which or get out my voltmeter to see if it was even getting 12V.
Anyway I have a new fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator and I'm going to pull the manifold and install a new in tank pump tomorrow as well as the other two parts I have.
I want to replace the ECU while I'm at it. Yea... I'm throwing parts at it. I know. The truck is 70 miles away and I just want the dang thing to run. I can't keep driving back and forth so I need to do as much as possible while I can. There aren't any shops close or any mechanics that I know of besides a dealership and I don't trust a dealership to work on my vehicles. Sounds stupid but they are the ones that built this crap to begin with they don't need to screw it up any worse when I can do that just fine on my own.
Anyway it was getting ready to rain on me so I got under the dash and pulled the first box that looked like it was probably the ecm, I guess it's not. Where is that bugger, do I have to remove the instrument cluster to get to it? I saw a picture at autozone of the plug in, it had a bolt in the middle and I don't recall seeing that under the dash.
Thanks for the help -Matt
Drained out 9 gallons of orange and brown gas. The tank looks almost new it's still fairly shiny with minimal surface rust. The pump inside also looks almost new. I held the pump in my hand and turned the key over and didn't get any vibrations or hear it make any noises. I didn't have a helper to help me figure out which wires were which or get out my voltmeter to see if it was even getting 12V.
Anyway I have a new fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator and I'm going to pull the manifold and install a new in tank pump tomorrow as well as the other two parts I have.
I want to replace the ECU while I'm at it. Yea... I'm throwing parts at it. I know. The truck is 70 miles away and I just want the dang thing to run. I can't keep driving back and forth so I need to do as much as possible while I can. There aren't any shops close or any mechanics that I know of besides a dealership and I don't trust a dealership to work on my vehicles. Sounds stupid but they are the ones that built this crap to begin with they don't need to screw it up any worse when I can do that just fine on my own.
Anyway it was getting ready to rain on me so I got under the dash and pulled the first box that looked like it was probably the ecm, I guess it's not. Where is that bugger, do I have to remove the instrument cluster to get to it? I saw a picture at autozone of the plug in, it had a bolt in the middle and I don't recall seeing that under the dash.
Thanks for the help -Matt
Pretty sure that once you undo the wire you can undo those 2 nuts (top and bottom in the pic) and pull the ECM right out into the engine compartment without even taking the kick panel off inside.
Bleeds blue
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 376
Likes: 148
From: North Carolina
Photo from my other parts truck.
