302 for Smithkid

[SmithKid]

Dear member #1, #2, and #3, I did get under the car and tweek the O2 sensor harness away from the header, but haven't even lowered the car back down yet. Got too much going on at once.

[Luva65wagon]

...haven't even lowered the car back down yet. Got too much going on at once.

Still? I'm anxious to hear it is all running happily. Of course I know all to well the "too much going on" thing. When I realize more than a week has passed and I haven't been here checking for things.

[SmithKid]

Yup. We now getting the house in order to go up for sale in 2 weeks. Soon, I hope.

[SmithKid]

Finally got a little time to look at the Ranchero a week or so ago. Got a little detail under the car taken care of and put it back on the ground. This morning, got a bit more time, Roger (member #1, #2, #3) came by and we reset the ECU to default and started over again. IT RUNS!! Drove it around the block, and will put a few more miles on it in the next coupla days. It's running a bit smoother at idle than it ever has is my first observation. Will keep you posted.

[dhbfaster]

House up for sale Gene?
Where are you headed?

[SmithKid]

House sold, next place pending. Puyallup, near Graham.

[dhbfaster]

Nice. I was looking around there. It seems like it would be easier to get a place big enough to have a shop.

[SmithKid]

Yeah. I looked at a place..... just under an acre, 1200 sq ft, 2-car attached, and shop big enough for 4 cars with additional 8 ft car door out the back. Overkill for me.

[Corbin]

House sold, next place pending. Puyallup, near Graham.

We just bought some property with a shop in Roy. If you ever need a hand, give me a shout.

[SmithKid]

Finally got the Ranchero "home" yesterday, after several months temporarily residing in my daughter & son-in-laws garage. Not without some problems (most likely caused by me not giving the car the attention it deserves/needs). The battery was totally dead.

So.... it's time to give some credit where it's due. Almost three years ago, I purchased a battery an unlikely place..... HD. It was appreciated at the time by me as a great price for the proper unit (Exide 24x) with a 40 month warranty. Today, 35 months into the warranty, HD replaced the battery. Zero dollars! I was totally surprised and impressed. Again! Kudos to them!

[pbrown]

I'm a big Dynamat fan. I have it in the Falcon and am in process of installing it plus a layer of DynaLiner to my van project. I like to cover every inch that I can get too.

[SmithKid]

I love Dynamat, too. My Falcon got the full treatment.

As i posted earlier in this thread, I've moved S to the Puyallup area. Seems as tho', in the move I lost my headlight doors (which, for some forgotten reason, were off). So.... I'm looking for a decent pair to replace errant units. Anyone got an extra pair lying around (1965 only)?

[Gitanesteel]

I love Dynamat, too. My Falcon got the full treatment.

As i posted earlier in this thread, I've moved S to the Puyallup area. Seems as tho', in the move I lost my headlight doors (which, for some forgotten reason, were off). So.... I'm looking for a decent pair to replace errant units. Anyone got an extra pair lying around (1965 only)?

Ed Murphy in Clarkston has parts for 64/65's including a 64 Ranchero. PM me and I can send you his phone number and email address. It's worth asking

[Luva65wagon]

I've been helping Gene the past few weeks to do some work on his FiTech fuel injection. It was installed a year or so ago (documented elsewhere in this thread), but he discovered the need to relocate the return line. He also needed to replace his mechanical fuel pump, which feeds the FiTech Command Center, which has an internal electric fuel pump.

To accomplish the new return we added a fitting to a "new" tank sender he had for the return and hooked it all back up. After putting in the new mech. fuel pump we took it for a ride to get some gas. We were about a mile from his house when it died. Due to where it was, and limited diagnostic ability (though I did reinstall the old pump because I thought it was the only thing we changed that could cause this) Gene ultimately had to tow it home.

Fast forward a couple weeks as Gene decided what to do and get some parts. I came back down and Gene had decided to add a frame rail fuel pump and abandon the FiTech Command Center, which is a "known" weakness to the system. They're notorious for overheating and boiling the fuel and people are already hacking them to make them work better. But Gene didn't like the thing in general, so we got the new pump mounted on Saturday and I came back today to wrap it up. Unfortunately the day proved to be a real test on our patience with FiTech.

The FiTech unit has a specific wire to run electric fuel pumps and it was connected to the Command Center before. We wired it to the new pump, but we discovered it was dead - no voltage. So I bypassed the FiTech wire and the pump ran... but would not pick up any fuel from the tank. So I yanked the tank sender to discover the tank filter could be pushed on so far it cut off all fuel. AhHa! That was probably why the car got stranded, but we still didn't have voltage on the pump wire. So as I worked on the sender I had Gene call FiTech to sleuth the pump feed wire. Then it got kooky.

Gene: We're swapping out your crappy Command Center with your model XYZ frame rail pump, but have no voltage at the orange wire.

FiTech Support: It should have voltage only for the first 3 seconds.

Me: Nope

FiTech Support: Do you have 12 volts at the red wire.

Me: Yes, we have power to it at the starter solenoid.

FiTech Support: You need to have this wire go directly to the battery.

Me: That's nonsense - and besides, it has 12 volts on your red wire! Next...

FiTech Support: You need a minimum .5 ohms resistance to ground for the throttle body.

Me and Gene: It's 0.00 - no resistance.

FiTech Support: It needs to be .5 ohms...

Me and Gene: (Looking at each other with dismay) - We have a perfect ground?!?! Are you saying we need .5 ohms or it shouldn't be more than...

FiTech Support: Oh, Uh, that's OK.

Me: Where does the orange wire get it's source voltage from?

FiTech Support: The ECU...

FiTech Support: We could reset it and see if that resolves it...

Gene and Support go through the steps to reset the ECU and then... still no voltage.

FiTech Support: I guess you'll need to send it in for repair. Or you can buy a new ECU and replace it yourself.

Gene: How much will that be?

FiTech Support: I don't know, you'll have to ask sales, but the service fee will be $85 plus parts plus shipping.

Gene is transferred to sales, who push him to send it in, $85 plus $285 plus shipping... and "Oh you'll now have a new 1 year warranty! Lucky You!"

Gene: I just replaced your crappy Command Center at my expense and now you're telling me I may need to spend another $350 plus and, and, and...

Roger staring into the engine bay as Gene argues his case (with little to no sympathy from FiTech) when I see what look like 3 fuse holders in the FiTech harness. I proceed to pull the covers off each and one is actually blown! On the orange wire! I pull it and walk to Gene and hold it up to him as the FiTech sales guy is still rambling on and on about how Gene will benefit from sending it in as opposed to replacing the ECU...

Gene's eyes get wide and tells the sales guy that his tech support guy, who we'd just spent half an hour (Twilight Zone time) with had NEVER mentioned. "First check the fuse....!"

FiTech Sales: I apologize for that, sir.

Gene: Click

New fuse and Gene's car roars to life. Gene missed the show over in his lake house park he'd waited all year to go to because a sending unit strainer was pressed on too far causing the pump to draw too much current and blow the fuse (just a guess). The only way I try to see this as a positive is perhaps someone above was trying really hard to keep him off the road that weekend.

OK, I feel better even if nobody reads this rambling mess of a story.

[SmithKid]

Thanks, Roger.

I'm not too sure I could have written that up as coherently as you did, because I'm still dismayed as to how inept the FiTech support person was. And if it wasn't for your SHARP eye, I'd probably be out another $300+ to have those "support" people change a $.50 fuse for me.

My intent is to compose a letter to FiTech detailing that fiasco in the next coupla days.

By the way, when you bring up the FiTecch website, they are now offering their newer replacement for the "Command Center" that I wasted my $$ on, and it's ONLY $400+ dollars! Of course nothing about how their older unit was a piece of garbage that overheated your fuel (some reports of 180 degrees F) and all the purchasers (like me) that had wasted their $$.

Would I purchase their EFI again? Probably not, knowing what I know now.