Dan Wheeler's Remote TFI ("Closed Bowl") Conversion Thread

[DPDISXR4Ti]

New on here and I'm planning to do the upgrade to the remote-mounted TFI / closed-bowl distributor on my '91 truck with the 4.9. I'm thinking it should be pretty much the same process as it was here with the V8. I will update this thread once I get there. Planning to use some junkyard-clipped harness bits.

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey DPD, welcome to classic! Thanks for keeping the mods alive and updating the info.
Only a very few members here running the physically larger 4.9/300 six engine in our Early Broncos, but those guys will be watching I'm sure.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[DanWheeler]

Several years in and this is still one of my favorite upgrades. Zero issues compared to before when I’d get random failures and no-starts when hot.

Good luck with the upgrade

Dan

 

[DanWheeler]

I just re-read this thread. That is all a bunch of gibberish to me now. I hope this site stays up so if I ever need to get in there again I can refer to my old threads to figure out what the *%#* I did at the time.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I just re-read this thread. That is all a bunch of gibberish to me now.

Glad I'm not the only one who sometimes reads something I wrote XX years ago, and thinks, "Hmmm, I was really smart back then - I have no recollection of that today!"

I only realized from this thread that the later distributor with the remote TFI was referred to as a "Closed bowl distributor". There are a million threads on doing the remote TFI leaving the existing distributor in place; this was the only one I found that converted to the closed bowl distributor. I'm assuming that there won't be any significant difference in the project with the I6 vs. the V8.

I probably won't get to the junkyard to grab some bits until the heat eases, so you may not see an update to this thread until the Fall.

 

[DanWheeler]

Yeah I started out with just the remote TFI and existing distributor but it felt really flimsy and I was having trouble with the spade connectors on the outside of the dist where the TFI would normally connect. I didn’t want to modify the dist to solder those in because I wanted to be able to replace the dist if I was on the road.

The hardest part of the closed bowl conversion was finding that Ford 8 pin connector. I believe the part number is in the thread above.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

The hardest part of the closed bowl conversion was finding that Ford 8 pin connector. I believe the part number is in the thread above.

I think that part should be pretty easy to locate at the junkyard. ;D Plus, I'll try to get as long a run of wire as possible, probably longer than what you get with the commercially sold pig-tail.

 

[DanWheeler]

You’d think so but the pick n pulls around here don’t have mustangs, those get parted out by specialists but if you find an alternative source do let us know.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

You’d think so but the pick n pulls around here don’t have mustangs, those get parted out by specialists but if you find an alternative source do let us know.

Both the V8 and I6 trucks got the closed-bowl distributor from '92 - '97, so I would think any of them could be a donor. I'm guessing that the connector is the same regardless of the engine, but I will find out.

Or was there some other reason why you needed to use the Mustang distributor?

 

[Steve83]

The connector is the same for all TFI ICMs, and it's shared by several other components (like the wiper motor). Read this caption:


(phone app link)

Use CTRL+F to search it (and almost any other web page).

 

[Broncobowsher]

Yeah I started out with just the remote TFI and existing distributor but it felt really flimsy and I was having trouble with the spade connectors on the outside of the dist where the TFI would normally connect. I didn’t want to modify the dist to solder those in because I wanted to be able to replace the dist if I was on the road.

The hardest part of the closed bowl conversion was finding that Ford 8 pin connector. I believe the part number is in the thread above.

If you look at the wiring of a TFI and remote TFI you can see that the pins needed to connect the two are a pass through on the regular TFI. That is you take a regular TFI, use the 3 pins (power, ground, signal) to connect to the remote TFI. Since the pins are just pass through and not going to the circuit board inside the TFI they are not prone to failure.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

The connector is the same for all TFI ICMs

Understood. What we were talking about is the quick-connector for the closed-bowl distributor. I'm guessing that is the same for all Ford closed-bowl distributors circa 1992 - 1997, but I'm not 100 certain.

 

[Steve83]

Oh, the round 8-pin one? That's also a common connector shape on Ford/L/Ms of that era.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Oh, the round 8-pin one? That's also a common connector shape on Ford/L/Ms of that era.

I've seen that type used on other Ford stuff, but wasn't sure if maybe it was keyed in various ways. I'll look first at '92 - '97 truck distributors, and then look elsewhere only if needed.

 

[Steve83]

You can cut the key off to make it fit - it's not like you'll accidentally plug it into the wrong place.

 

[gclauson]

Hey Brad,
I have both a 94/95 Mustang 5.0 and 94 truck 5.8 closed bowl distributor and confirmed that both have the same connector keying.

I'm currently working this same conversion, as an interim until I get my OBD2 Explorer harness converted. Following this thread!

Gary

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Good timing as I went junkyarding yesterday and came home with some harness clips and two closed-bowl 4.9 distributors. I suspect the connector is the same between the V8 and I6, but I didn't even check since I had a couple 4.9 donors to grab from.

Update with actual results hopefully soon.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Finally got this done yesterday - started right up on the first try!

There's a lot of different ways I could have done this, but ultimately I decided the least invasive approach was using just the junkyard clipped off harness pig-tail from the closed-bowl distributor. I left the original TFI connector in place on my truck, and it's now going to the remote TFI, mounted on a factory heatsink which is attached to the fender liner. Taking this approach, I had to clip three of the wires going to the TFI quick connector (PIP, 12V+ Run, IGN GND) and create a 3-way splice on each which connected the remote distributor. The other three wires remained as original, now going to the remote TFI.

The only part that was a bit of a head-scratcher was the GND connections. You've got three of them coming out of the closed-bowl distributor quick-connector that are all common (2, 3, & 7 in the diagram above). I connected them a little different than the diagram... I connected the bare GND wires that ties into the shielding wrap on both side along with pin 3 out of the distributor. I think. I need to verify and update this.
This thread talks a lot about this exact issue and potential "ground loop" problems.
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=197853

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

A couple pics...

If that doesn't work, here's a link to the complete thread on Ford Trucks with pics...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1190989-remote-tfi-conversion-using-92-distributor-4-9-a-2.html

I'm undecided at this point whether I should disconnect the original GND which is still connected near the PCM on the original '91 setup.

 

[DirtDonk]

I don't see disconnecting any ground as an advantage, unless it's proven to be causing a problem.

Paul