The Other Shoe Fell

"Future Heap Owner" (aperiodic) 08/14/2018 at 11:51 • Filed to: The whole story

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So when I said I drove my new super NP craigslist truck home without “major” mishap, that “major” qualifier was crucial because I omitted the MIL coming on about 15 minutes into the drive.

I thought I needed an OBD-I to OBD-II cable to check this out, but I learned from the Haynes manual that you only need to jam a wire between the two top rightmost ports of the OBD-I socket and the MIL will flash out a decimal code you can look up.

After borrowing a jumper wire from my current breadboard project I obtained code 43, which indicates a problem with the Electronic Spark Control module (the thing that retards the timing based on input from the knock sensor). On this generation it’s a whole distinct module, not something the ECM does.

So tonight I’ll be making sure the connector is seated properly and testing all the wires to & from the module that I can. The Haynes manual says you can test the resistance of the module itself to see if it’s good but is of course extremely vague about, you know, which terminal on the module to test. So maybe I’ll figure out how to do that, or just try all of them and see if any have the right resistance. If that doesn’t work then it’s off to grab one of these from the junkyard this weekend.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 12:15

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Shenanigans! Of course the seller decided to sell when t he light came on last week. Just before you arrived, he pulled the battery cable to reset the light in the hopes that your test drive would be short enough to avoid having the light come on.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 12:20

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There is a simple fix for that:

Future Heap Owner > TheRealBicycleBuck 08/14/2018 at 12:24

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I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not but I’m thinking that’s more or less what happened. Seems more likely than it developing the problem on the drive home. It doesn’t seem very hard to fix, though, and the price was great, so I’m not bummed.

Future Heap Owner > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 08/14/2018 at 12:25

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Doesn’t cover up the power loss though

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 12:36

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Spark control module going out is the only problem I remember running into these. And it’s as an easy of a fix as you think it is. But for the love of all that is holy, throw the Haynes in the trash where it belongs and buy the FSMs.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 12:39

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Flip the air cleaner cover over, that should negate the power loss.....

Future Heap Owner > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 08/14/2018 at 12:43

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Yeah I was scoping out FSMs last night but they’re decently pricey and I’m obviously  a cheapskate. I’ll probably get one the first time the truck needs some major work.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 14:25

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So... basically never?

I mean seriously. As long as you do the basic maintenance stuff with some regularity, probably the only thing you’ll ever have to worry about is wearing out suspension parts.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 14:26

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My biggest pet peeve with all the electronics on cars in that it’s a major PITA to find any information on diagnosing an issue. Accurate pin outs are hard to come by and the ones in the Haynes manual cover every option on multiple years and sometimes don’t even show everything (replaced the head unit on my 93 F150 and no where in the schematics did it show the wiring diagram for the headunit). Finding things like what resistance a sensor should read is like going on a wild goose chase.

Future Heap Owner > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 08/14/2018 at 14:39

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H opefully! I do need to replace at least some of the bushings between the frame and suspension that are very old and cracked. The other things would be springs, bars, and shocks?

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Future Heap Owner 08/14/2018 at 15:54

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Pretty much anything rubber is aged out. That’s just how it is. Doesn’t matter who made it. Past that? Not even that much. As long as it doesn’t have rust (any visible frame rust, it’s doomed) they eat oil changes, transmission fluid and filter, and the rare steering component.

MIGHT have the dash go bad on these, but there’s a million guides out there how to fix it easy enough.