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Bob Weir wrote:Great to hear the other wiring harness was the cure! And that you learned how to use a code scanner.
Out of curiosity, starting at the throttle position sensor, remove the tape wrap. I bet you're going to find some funky insulation and wires.
And I know you'll be "testing" the breakout box. It makes diagnostics so much easier.
Bob
Let me tell you a little story about that harness. I didn't realize it till late in the install, but apparently, some time in the past, I had thought I had the need to cut the TPS sensor connector off of the harness. Don't ask me why I thought I needed to do that, but I had. So here I am almost done installing the new harness and realize I am a connector short. The string of expletives that came out of my mouth would have made my wife blush. I dug around in my parts bin and found the stupid connector. So I did have to strip back into the wad of tape that is the harness and find some good wire to splice to. This added about an hour to the job, and when I got it all done and it apparently was for nothing, I just about sold the car right there. If someone had offered me a $100, I probably would have helped them load it up.
Luckily I was able to re-attach my head after it exploded, and a week later the car is running good again.
Maybe you were getting the same codes as me -" TPS voltage out of range". That caused me to R&R with a new Motorcraft TPS. The factory wrap was fugly, so as I removed it, the real cause of the fault codes was apparent. And as a side note, the new TPS has what appear to be "gold" plated contacts in it.
No need for quotation marks around gold, those are real gold plated contacts. FWIW, there was a quiet recall for the Scorpio TPS, a kit which included a new TPS with gold plated contacts as well as a new section of harness and connector that also had gold plated contacts.
"a kit which included a new TPS with gold plated contacts as well as a new section of harness and connector that also had gold plated contacts"
That's what I have. Real GOLD in a Merkur Scorpio.
Next will hear of platinum in the 89 seat heaters.
I didn't recall from memory the connector being part of the kit. IIRC (fingers crossed...) there's no difference in the OEM and kit female connector...thus why my error.
I erred in taking without re-reading the instructions and then quickly posting them.
Thanks for the correction and verification.
YMMV
Descartes: "Cogito Ergo Sum"
Lijewski: "Sum Ergo Drive-O. Mucho!
Small update. Still putting together finances to have Jeff @ Midwest Merkur paint the car. Can't wait to see what fresh Raven Metallic looks like instead of the nuclear blast furnace version I have now.
Replaced the front control arms (again). Hopefully this set will last more than 18 months. I also replaced the rack & pinion with a re-manufactured unit along with new outer tie rod ends. After alignment the car drives so much better. The old rack's inner tie rod ends were starting to have play, and it leaked etc. It is very nice. One bit of concern. A little too much negative camber on the passenger side. I the specification max was -1.4 degrees and it had -1.6 degrees. I think either the strut mount is going bad, or the spring may be sagging a little. Not going to worry about it for now, will just keep an eye on inner tire wear.
Finally replaced the catalytic converter today. Signs that it was time to replace include: rattle in the converter, general feeling of pulling a boat most of the time, and after a 60 mile trip the other day I smelled sulfur from the converter. The replacement I got weighs about 1/2 as much as the original. It has only one converter in the assembly whereas the old one has two converters. I attached a picture for comparison. I took it out for a test drive afterwards and the driveability has greatly improved.
It has been a month since I installed the new catalytic converter. A few observations:
1) With only the one converter in the pipe the exhaust note has increased noticeably. (It's okay, just a little loud in a bank drive thru)
2) Engine performance has increased noticeably. Acceleration is better and gas mileage has ticked up 1-2 mpg.
3) No more mysterious rattle noises coming from underneath the car.
brokencase wrote:Why did your control arms only last 18 months? Brand?
Also, what brand is the new CAT? I think I saw MagnaFlow units for the Scorpio on ebay.
I bought them from Jan Talian. I think his handle here is ford.scorpio. They were a "German" built control arm. Didn't last very long. I did contact him about it, but nothing came of it. I got the CAT off of rockauto.com. It was made by Davico manufacturing.
Well, after 7+ years, 250+ posts and untold money spent. I passed my Scorpio on to another MCA member. Bart Dyshuk made me an offer for both cars and I accepted. They were picked up this evening by a transport company. I have no doubt Bart will finish up what I was unable to do. The reasons for me doing this are the normal. I haven't had the time to work on it much this past year. In the next three years I have two kids going to college. Etc, etc. it has been fun owning Merkur's over the years and this community has always been so supportive. I will still check in from time to time. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.
And that you learned how to use a code scanner.
