first extract your TFI harness and notice where it "could" be if you relocate your TFI to the driver strut tower somewhere
doing this effectively reduces single points of failure and you are only adding three wires with this mod.
now remove the Air Conditioner support bracket
about now you could dial in top dead center then mark your rotor to your dizzy case, then mark the base to your intake or do it later.
Now rotate the dizzy and remove the TFI with our newly modified thin wall 7/32 socket
Don't drop your screws,, so do this
now select your wire color from all the different colors you have collected and made to store in this neat large round container :)
now with your spare stator you have lying around, tone out the connectors molded in the mounting part which lead out to the magnetic part of the stator.
in this step it is important you have continuity not only from the black wire and "BLACK" terminal but also to the metal tab on the stator mounting bracket. I tore open one of these a long time ago wondering what was inside all that mooshy rubbery stuff,,,, there is nothing. just the red and green and black wires transitioning to the terminals. What I did notice was the black had a parallel branch that is cad welded to the metal mounting. Upon examination of a failed unit I tore into, I discovered the black branch (which is a bare wire by the way) had corroded and broke. this meant the stator was not getting a ground to the engine itself so perhaps that's why it failed.
Notice that the black and red trade places on the physical stator connector! keep track of this because you have to deal with it later.
now make up your harness extender consisting of three wires.
see this picture and how the colors land in what part of each end of the new harness.
Just solder your ends on, don't bother with crimping because you will pay for that error later , perhaps on the highway or somewhere just a tad inconvenient.
When soldering terminals with plastic ends on them, just slip the plastic end off, slide them up the wire a ways then solder the bare metal terminal to your new wire.
simply slip your plastic end back on then heat it up so it shrinks... or you can let the heat from the car do that for you.
its much easier to connect the wiring on the dizzy with the dizzy pulled.
either dial in top dead center then mark your rotor button to the outer case of the dizzy & mark your dizzy base to intake.
now just extract the dizzy and then hook up your new harness.
I mounted my heat sync here, I will see how it does over the next few days but so far so good.
its just a simple 90deg 1/8'' steel bracket with one large bolt bonding it to chassis to transition the heat to the body, I may add another bolt to dissipate additional heat.
drill and tap you holes to accept the original mounting screws.
I can feel some heat on the heat sync but not enough to worry me. I may revise this mount depending on the results but 50miles resulted in the same "feel" of heat as was the case at idle and the difference was nothing.
replace your Air Conditioner support bracket.
Dress some grommet on your new harness and your set.
revised
First thing i do different is i solder the leads to the TFI and PIP and use a metal clip instead of a tie wrap to hold the wires on the dizzy. I have seen Tie wraps chafe wires more times than you can figure . Then i move the heat sync and module further forward past all the engine heat. Far enough from the fans that can possibly add heat to the unit. Then just me i think your heat sync is a little wimpy. But yo have the right idea. Have a great day guys.
I agree with the size of the heat sync. I let that larger chunk remain because I figured it would help suck heat upward to wick it out.
for the location,, I wanted to reduce the amount of new connections and any possible voltage drop problems. I found out yesterday the actual ideal location might be on the passenger side which would effectively "shorten" the runs of wire for the tfi main connector.
I will eventually increase the heat sync,, wish I had a way to mill out a large one I have,, like pass a bit side to side to flatten out the mounting area.
either way the intermittent bucking I had did not go away with the new FoMoCo TPS, TFI and Stator. I haven't bothered to set the tps yet, need to still do that.
usually when you replace all three of those things,, all ignition intermittent symptoms should be cured. Verified the fuel pres under load and it was fine.
soldering directly to the parts like that is very tricky if you don't know how to control the heat. using a large gator clip or something between the tab your attaching to and the upstream components. soldering directly to the TFI and PIP doesn't make for an easy de-install.
Check spark plug wires…I've had that happen before with the occasional bucking.
Also, the 1988 3.8L cars had the TFI remotely mounted to the radiator core support, top passenger side next to the coolant overflow tank, with its own built-in heat sink:
(http://www.coolcats.net/help/images/tfi2.jpg)
So…it may cost a little money but if you can scrounge around a boneyard or maybe find one on eBay, that would make things exactly how you want them. Just have to lengthen the wires going over. I'm going to eventually do this on the '86 but for now I have a few good working spare TFI modules in the trunk.
I know this is going to make the TFI on my car die but my Thunderbird still has the 27 year old (September of 87) factory Motorcraft TFI module. It's never been replaced (I know this for a fact because I have every repair receipt from when the car was bought at the dealer) and it's working fine mounted on the distributor where it left the factory. When it dies I'm just going to replace it with another one mounted on the distributor. If the TFI lasted 27 years I figure a new one mounted on the distributor should last just as long.
Once again it depends on the TUNE . Most TFI failures are the direct results of a bad tune and not location. That is why installing low OHM wires ETC kills the unit. Always check the tune. But remember the new TFI modules are not original Motorcraft. They are all KNOCK OFFS. Or sourced out for FORD. Cool Cat has the remote unit available from ford. Came on many different Ford models and engines. They were even on mustangs. Jay note the size and thickness of the heat sync. By the way you can buy all those components from ford even the PIP with extended leads and work with that other than extending to ones on the stock dizzy PIP mounted TFI unit. I think it is from a 95 mustang 5.0 that has what is needed.
actually the random bucking is a post Vinnie up up sometime last year maybe??? I chimed in and said I had the same thing going on. Wires are new ford ones,, over time have done all the basics tune up parts to whittle away at the issue. of course recently the big bux put on fomoco parts.. unfortunately tom is saying these TFI's from for are no good.
He confirmed by way of the part number I posted in my tfi picture that these are no good.. still cant confirm there were recalls though but according to Tom they are no good per his local resources.
They have to,be because FORD can not sell them because they mount incorrectly. Once tightened up they bend not only the spade tips also the receiving terminals. I found this out the hard way. I would never steer you wrong Jay. I am not like that. ford dealer took them back and gave us new ones for free. The new ones are vendor units and have Motorcraft on them but they clearly are stamped CHINA. Blue streak makes a good replacement i have used them successfully over the years. And remember there are 2 different types. Actually 3 but only 2 in GRAY. The other is Black and obvious. remember Auto modules are NON PUSH START. I always use push starts on everything. thanks and have a great evening guys.
post the pn' ect that you have ,,, and I forgot to have you expand,, "push start" means for a stick shift???????
Push starts are in fact for the stick units. I will have to check the parts trailer to see if i have more. If i do i will send it to you jay. I will look on Monday. Like i said it was a while ago. I know i have a few Blue Streaks i saw them last month. Have a great weekend Guys
Ive honestly only replaced one tfi module in about 11 years of driving these cars.
IF I get my way and actually get to do a winter build, I would like to add the heatsink mod though.
revised again
with my new found d, one for me, one for my oldest boy, one for my youngest and his coug we are putting together piece by piece.