whatitis

I just finished my 5.0 conversion 89 5.0 into 90 lx. I had a donor so everything went fairly smooth. When the big day came, i turned the key to on and the 20 ga. fuse link wire on the starter relay started smoking. black/orange stripe. It is supposed to go to the positive side of the relay isn't it ? According to the pics this wire goes to the eec relay. What did I do wrong ? I still have Mustang blood flowing through my 64 year old body but the body is wearing out. Hope you guys can tell me a quick fix. I considered getting rid of all this computer crap and going back to my roots, carburetor. Any ideas ?

Tony71502

At the alternator, there are two connectors. One connector has a yellow wire in it(among other wires). The other connector has two black wires with orange tracers(and a white wire).

As soon as the black wires are hidden by the stock harness tape/tubing, the two black/orange wires splice into one. The single black/orange wire and the yellow wire run accross the radiator support over to the driver's side strut tower area.

At this point, they splice into one wire and connect to the starter solenoid post that has all the other horsesh!t on it.

The wire I just described is a 10 ga. wire, though. Might be different than the one you are talking about.

Unless you have a high torque mini starter. All fusible links/alternator power wire/battery power wire should be on the same starter solenoid terminal. The other terminal should ONLY have the cable running to the starter itself.

whatitis

Thanks for the reply, I know the wires your talking about on the alternator. This wire is on the main harness. Right on the end of it where theres 4 connectors. AC, eec ground, coil and the wire I'm having trouble with, called 20 gauge fuse link to starter relay. soon as you turn the key it starts smoking. The books say this wire goes to the eec power relay.
Thanks again

whatitis

If the EEC relay was bad would it cause this problem ? If the key is on and you scratch the positive post of the starter relay with this wire you get lots of fire. I hope someone can tell me it's an easy fix before I have to start digging.

tohoopty

can you get pics of how you have it wired

whatitis

Thanks for the reply. This is my first time doing this on line so I'm not sure what I'm doing. I went down to the garage and took a pic. Now I don't know how to put it on. I thought there was a place to click to upload ? Sorry. Thanks

whatitis

I may have the problem solved. I took out the computer and pulled the harness out until i had the relay out. found a bare wire on the relay, maybe touching metal , anyhow, no smoking wire. Going to tape the bare spot, get a new relay ( just to be safe ) hope it's ok now. Thanks to all that helped me.

lxman1

Sounds like you found the problem!!!

whatitis

I guess I spoke too soon. As I was putting everything back together , I kept checking to make sure the wire was not burning and as soon as I plugged in the square green plug behind the kick panel the wire started smoking again. I was looking in the wrong spot all along. About 3 inches of one of the wires at that green plug has that melted look. Tomorrow I'll be checking that out. Anyone know what that green connector runs ? I hate electrical problems Thanks to all

whatitis

Sat. morning frustrations, Check this out, if I leave the green plug unplugged, the motor turns over, all the lights, radio and all the goodies work ok. Two things that are not working is the fuel pump and theres no spark. I know the fuel pump relay runs through it, the spark could be another issue. If you plug in the green plug the 20 ga. fuse link on the starter relay will instantly start smoking. Fuel, air and spark is all internal combustion needs. My 76 F150 runs every day without any problem at all. I know why people convert to carbs.