chad":1p0kbbfk said:
To you, Chad, and also Collins, since there seams to be an unloved "chunk" of info missing from the index 78-85 Fords...
Paper clip is replaced by a low drain LED or multi meter on certain On board computer Fords(EECIII's mainly).
Don't forget, GM and Ford did things very differently, and Fords weren't ALDL (Assembly Line Diagonstic Link).
Sweep needle multi meters are best for EECIII's, but you can use other types. You measure the flashes, needle sweeps or counts after invoking the test procedure by a variety of means. Polarity might not be an issue, but unless you have a test procedure, you test certain variants of the Electronic Engine Control computers certain ways.
As for catagories...
For me, anything pre 1996 is OBD I.
Ford couldn't ditch the NASA vacuum based BMAP system, so the various EECI III cars for some years won't take a check lamp if its the wrong current drain. For certain, the 1980 to 1995 cars so equiped with the Duraspark III and VV7200 or 1980-1985 cars with CFI and Duraspark III won't allow a full breakout of codes unless you follow the right procedure. Everything else, your usally okay, but there is still a polarity issues with which battery terminal you use once the test is kicked off.
General terms get revised a fair amount. My 1983 Toyota Corona 1.8 has CFI, a Check engine lamp, and transitorised ignition, so its technically OBD I in my book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics
General rules are 1991 was the official California Air Resources Board (CARB) requirement that all new vehicles sold in California in 1991 and newer vehicles have some basic OBD capability. Retrospectivly called OBD I. These requirements are generally referred to as "OBD-I", though this name is not applied until the introduction of OBD-II. The data link connector and its position are not standardized, nor is the data protocol. It was the first malfunction indicator light or "idiot light".
Ford championed EEC from 1978, but never made the Malfaunction Indicator Lamp(MIL)/ Check Engine Lamp (CEL) a factor on all cars untill after 1985, and CFI and 4-BBL 5.0's and some trucks missed out on it, even if they had a MIL/CEL lamp space on the dash. So even Star qualified IM technicians get this wrong on 1985 LTD's with 5.0 CFI's and most early CFI injection Mustangs.
Just remember, Ford was nervous as heck, potentially racing Chrysler Corp to the bankruptcy courts in 1980, and Henry Ford II made some fairly savage corrections on planned Forward car products for 1981 to 1985. None of those corporate editics ever allowed Ford to rehash/rework the missing EVTM and VECI details, the 78 to 85 er cars were just forgotten about, and many dealers to this day won't touch Ford products as a service propostion again due to the Malaise error service issues. They weren't product issues as far as can tell, but communication issues, and they woulda cost Serious Cash Units to rectify. Same thing happened in Australia. Total withdrawl of any suport to anyone unless you were a certified Ford technician. I'm lucky, I had the best ex Ford Service Techncian to teach me. If you were bleeding red ink, you'd probably do the same.
At least the Ford Fuel Delivery Engineering was 100%, the communication, well you had to network with others in the industry.
Ak Miller got out of exclusive Ford work back at that time, and continued to liase with Impco, and then OHG.The info from that guy saved the professional reputation of Ford during the darkest era ever. The EPA shut down San Jose plant, the constant bad press from Mad Magzine and even Johnny Carso started picking on Ford rather than Mopar.
See http://www.ahrf.com/legends/ak-miller/
In my opinion, Aks true secret was being a dirt under the nails technician who could swing working with FoMoCo engineers, (even the dumber ones from Ford...he used to be Ford Engineer appolo-gists when on retainer to Ford from the Total Performance Area till the early 80's SVO era, and an engineer mocker when he had to sort out the details. "He's an Enguneeer" he'd say in mock Danish. The stories about him fill the internet, and large chunks of the Earths Hot Rod So-Cal history books are made up from this mans expliots.
He said this (with emphasis mine, I hope its right)
"When you start out with nothing
And you come up with something
That's a little bit better....
Carburation
Or a little better system of camshaft or whatever...
in fuel engineering, lotta things good here with an automobile
And I saw all that and thought
"G_d, a guy can have, you know,....amplify
one area here, and he's got a lifetime running"
-Not that your gonna have Hot Rodding for a life...
but when you think of something like that
You don't think about how long its gonna last
Cause you know damn good and well
ITS NEAT!!!!!!"
and watch his video as a ripe old 80 year old.
and listen to this voice tape, from Tales Form the Track with Tom Maddigan
about how some thought Ak was nuts and a crazy sob....
http://talesfromthetrack.com/audio/ak-miller
I was profoundly influenced by this great man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LphlG4QxYmY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6HqZvBv1hY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BKtzpcRS3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6pSzbvwi4M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3DLj3kfUjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztujox8fly0
