265258

Hello. I'm new to Fords... I just bought a 1986 Ford F150 4X4 with a manual Trans and a Straight 6. I've wanted one of these for a while. It's been sitting a long time. It was running before the PO cracked the exhaust manifold and was replacing it then let it sit for a long time. Now I have it. I've replaced the exhaust manifold, and am in the process of getting it ready to run.

The main thing I noticed right away is that most of the emissions are missing. So I've decided to switch to a vacuum advance distributor and get rid of the Engine Management Module under the dash since it was mostly good for nothing. The only thing the Module was controlling was the distributor, and since most of the emissions are gone, it probably wouldn't function as intended anyway. So I went and bought a new Duralast distributor from Autozone with a vacuum advance. I'm trying to wire it up but Ford wiring is proving to be a new challenge. So far I've figured out that the White/Blue wire is ignition power and goes to the positive on the coil. The Green/Black wire on the coil is negative and goes to the distributor. The Distributor has 3 wires. Black, Obviously Ground, Black with a Brownish Orange stripe, and Bluish Purple with a Black stripe. The morons didn't include any diagram to show what these oddball colors are meant to hook up to and no description of how to hook it up. That's the main problem. The other trouble I'm having is that I'm using a Chiltons repair manual and the wiring diagrams are a joke. I'm noticing that Ford seemed to have a real nasty habit of splicing wires into different colors in the middle of the wiring harness then popping them out in different places, and the diagrams don't cover most of that. So I have several wires on the drivers side fender well with no explanation as to what they do. I'm a Dodge man, I could wire a Dodge with no troubles cause they are so straight forward and the diagrams simple. This Truck is annoying as crap. Fusible links everywhere swapping colors and branching around. I'm tempted to yank the entire harness and wire it according to the manual, 'Maybe Someday'. But I really just need to get the distributor hooked up. Can I get some help or what?

265258

Alright. Looking over the diagrams. I was comparing the 1986 diagram to a 1980 diagram. It would seem that I need to find an ignition module for a 1980 truck to make this work. The 1980 does not have the engine control module, but it does have an ignition module. I can remember on my old Dodge trucks, there was an ignition module even thought the distributor was a vacuum advance, the module controlled the spark duration and such. So that makes sense. The 1986 diagram shows an engine control module working with an EEC distributor. So there is no ignition module present. That's what I need, then I will refer to the 1980 diagram for the wiring directions. Does this seem right to any of you? Has anyone looking here ever done this?

What about the coil? Is there a difference between the 86 and 80 coil?

265258

Okay well, I went and bought an ignition module for a 1980 truck, went to the wrecking yard and yanked a couple pigtails for the distributor, then wired it according to the diagram in the chiltons manual. Naturally the color codings don't match with the Autozone parts, so I wired it according to what I saw and common sense. Still no spark. When I put a tester light on the coil both poles are showing positive. How stupid. I tried grounding the negative on the coil, still no spark. I am using the coil for the 1986, the positive is supposed to be the White/Blue wire coming off the coil, so I hooked that to ignition power along with the White wire on the Ignition Module. The Green/Yellow wire from the coil is supposed to be Negative I'm assuming. That is an assumption because the book does not acutually show a negative symbol. Is it possible for a coil to have 2 positive poles for some odd reason?

I just went out and tested a few things again. I unhooked the Green/Yellow wire from the Ignition Modules Green wire. I turned on the ignition, then tested the green wire from the Ignition Module and there was no power coming from it which makes sense because it is supposed to go to the negative pole of the coil. Then I tested the Green/Yellow wire on the coil without it being hooked to anything, and it lit up the tester. So apparently the Stock coil for the 1987 (a different style coil) is the wrong coil for this unit. Tomorrow I will buy a normal round style coil like the 1980 uses and try again.

Uhg eer, Thanks for the replies Yarddogg77.....

Why you're welcome Yarddogg77.....

You are such a smart guy....

I know.....

Redneck11

I just swapped an HEI was a piece of cake once I discovered my timing marks are off 180 degrees. If what you are doing doesn't work I'd go that route

265258

Yeah, I was wondering why I couldn't find the timing mark. It might help once I get spark to it. I should find out today. The weather has been hot, and I had stopped to weld a new exhaust system up.

When you say the marks are off 180 degrees, what do you mean? I pulled the #1 spark plug to find top dead center, and didn't see a timing mark, is that what you had trouble with? if so, how did you set timing? I think I did see a thread where someone mentioned painting the timing marks on. How does Ford make a mistake like that?

Redneck11

It was firing at tdc but tdc on my exhaust stoke not compression I moved the plug wires 180 around the distributor and it fired up. As far as it being ford's mistake I have no idea why it ended up like that maybe someone took off the pulley and put it back on opposite or something I dont know

265258

I think I might end up with the same problem considering I couldn't find timing marks at all on what I thought was TDC. I won't know for a bit. I was finishing up the last exhaust bracket and my welding machine has broken for good it seems. I guess I could try to start it with the jack stand under it to find out if it will fire. I still need to mount my new coil, and run a few more wires. Which coil are you using? Did you get a round style coil, or are you using the plate style coil? I couldn't get the coil for the HEI distributor to spark at all.

265258

One more question. How did you wire your coil? I'm using the diagram for the 1980 truck. I think it's kind of weird that it shows the red/blue wire fr the starter relay as part of the ower source for the coil. in the past on other vehicles. The only thing the coil ever needed was 12V ignition power to work right. There is also the wire coming from the starter sind of the solenoid, I assume it's for extra coil power while the starter is cranking. Did you hook that up too? One more question. If you have a green wire on you ignition module, did you hook that to the negative on the coil? Or did you just ground the coil? Or both maybe? Like I say, I'm new to Fords.

Redneck11

I timed it by ear once I got it to idle. https://www.f150forum.com/f13/1985-f150-4-9-distributor-sway-380801/ this is my thread it has mine and another guys stuff on it I did mine basically just like his

Redneck11

I learned a way from an old mechanic to make sure it's tdc on the compression stroke. Pull the #1 plug and hold your thumb over ithe hole while a buddy turns the engine by hand when you feel pressure that's the right stroke now just look in the hole with a light or stick a dowel rod in the hole and bring it to tdc then begin with the distributor instal and designate a #1 terminal