Jim Warman

Here's about the easiest thing you can try... and all you need is a voltmeter and a couple of suitable probes (Mac Tools has a couple or three really marvelous probe kits for DMMs.. I bought two of their kits and rarely reach for the Ford probes any more.... Each one of these kits cost more than my DMM but well worth the expense). Then, let's get some basics out of the way... Learning to read the wiring diagrams will help, though the new ones don't show enough of what is "roughly" happening inside the module. For this case, we can see that this very likely isn't going to be a voltage divider circuit - looks like a simple NPN transistor turning the ground on or off. If I say measure something to ground... I mean to the battery negative terminal and NOT to something that looks convenient. Same thing goes for a source of B+.... Straight to the positive terminal. Under 10 bucks and you can have a 50 foot fused pair of jumpers. Before you begin volt drop testing, ALWAYS measure battery voltage first- ALWAYS. If your testing is starting to take a little longer than you thought, recheck battery voltage occasionally. If the voltage drops off to the 12.2 ~ 12.4 range, start thinking real hard about putting it on a charger. You are getting outside of the designed operating range and odd things start to happen. ALL measurements are taken with the system fully connected and turned on. You have to do this right, or your measurements aren't going to mean a damned thing. Three measurements is all it will take to decide where to look for the problem.... Backprobe both sides of the IWE connector with the key on and the selector in 2WD (this should ground the control side of the circuit). If everything is working properly... you'll see close to B+. If the solenoid is open but the circuit is OK... you'll see close to B+ (and no... that isn't confusing if you only think about it). So... we got 0 VDC... No problem... Take the probe from the ground side of the solenoid and touch it to battery ground. If we get B+ we move on... Anything else and we investigate the power side of the circuit. Moving on, we re-insert the ground side probe... and take the power side probe and touch it to the battery positive cable. We should see B+ (remembering that we are STILL KOEO and switch in 2WD). In this case... I believe that we wont... There's our three measurements to detemine if the problem is the "load" (in the case, the IWE solenoid), the power supply or the control circuit... Our last test showed that the control side of the solenoid isn't grounding.... so we can gain access to the back side of the plug on the PCM and backprobe that connector. One lead of the DMM to that pin and one lead to battery ground. If we still see B+, that driver isn't switching... Four volt drop tests... elapsed time about .3ish??? Some words of caution.... The IDS sometimes "remembers" things we don't want it to. After repairing a hard fault, I like to close the session entirely and start from scratch. When doing the KOEO self test, the 4WD selector switch MUST be in the 2WD position. The 4WD indicator lamp on the cluster is an important clue. If this lamp does NOT illuminate, there is every chance that the PCM will assume that the front driveline is not up to speed and will not command IWE operation. I'm not sure of what PID is being monitored... If we are looking at the MSS PID, all we get to see is if the PCM is processing THAT info... We still need to look at either the contact plate PIDs or at the computed transfer case position PID (if available) to see if the transfer case is actually entering 4WD. I apologize if this is insultingly basic to anyone... I am doing laminate flooring this weekend and I'm looking for any reason I can find to avoid kneeling down for a while.... Bruce.... this would be a great use for some of that classroom software....

Generally speaking (and statements this bold usually don't go unpunished), VRS sensor circuits will have the two wires twisted as a pair. This is to reduce the possibiliy of RFI inducing a spurious signal (much like a bad ignition coil can set the ABS light). Late model Ford (starting around 04 or 05) wheel speed sensors are no longer the VRS type, though they do have only two wires. I'm starting to grow a little too fond of your scope... While the scope in the IDS is much better than the cartoon we got with the WDS... I'd like the user interface to be a little easier to deal with.

Good point on the amplitude, Bruce... I think that most that aren't at least a little familiar with the scope don't realize that the faster we move the magnetic lines of force across the coil in the sensor, the higher the peak voltages we will see.

This is one place an Oh silly scope would work to our benefit... I found a bent cam phaser with the scope not too long ago. Play with your toys, kiddees.... Play with your toys.... IDS with VMM is going to ring the cash register for near $12G in Canader.... If our boss is willing to spend this kind of faloose for us... the least we can do is get his moneys worth out of it. A few of us "dabble" with the scope and can help to a point.... I'm sure that Bruce is quite prepared to dazzle us with his expertise (and, I might add, quite rightly so) in helping with some issues. Remembering that he does have a business to run and an income to make. (Feel like you just "volunteered", Bruce?) /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif Sound High tech? Damned right.... The friggin' radio in a new truck has more computing power than anything that put men on the moon....

Lookie there.... Keeepthfff is gettin' damned near as goofy as I are.... Ever had a day when up seemed a lot like down?.... When the guy in your face just seems to deserve killin'?... When you think to yourself "why did you do that you fargin' idjit?"?... Or you're talking to a guy that just bought three new diesel SDs... and call him by his brothers name? When we make mistakes.... we can recover from them gracefully (sometimes)... ignore them - sometimes they will just go away... One safe bet is to pretend that someone else heard you wrong.... (WARNING - this doesn't work with printed material...). One thing that we can be assured of is "brain-farts".... Accept them... But if you can avoid it, never admit that you were wrong.... I thought I was wrong once.... but I was mistaken.... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

Keepppthfff.... I'm not sure we wanna see your "rusty hole".... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smirk.gif Good catch all the same....

James... the idea is that we don't shortchange ourselves.... I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box... but I get all those jobs that haunt our shop.... The secret for success? Don't overlook the basics.... Every now and again, some sad twist of human nature makes me a sucker... and I start to believe everything I am told... Testing fuel pressure PROPERLY isn't something we should do only after an injector repair... It should be an early step for most running concerns.... Making a truck run properly is a lot like building a house... If the foundations aren't right, the house ain't gonna be right... When it comes to PSDs, most of the stinkers I see are because a tech figured that the guy that wrote the diag sheets was a pansy. If the truck will start, we can just jump to step 7 or whatever, right? We can skip over these steps because that isn't EVER the problem.... NOT... In a similar vein.... ever watch someone spend three hours plus on a diag.... only to find out that there is a TSB that pays .7? The phrase I utter the most.... "Where's your OASIS printout?".... I hope I'm preaching to the choir....

I can't count how many times I've been trapped.... A tech you "know" you can trust to be thorough and truthful.... He get's something that turns into a stinker and somewhere along the line, he get's pulled off it and you are the benefactor of this "gift". 2003 Expedition, 5.4..... We can't reproduce the intermittent no start in cold weather.... We are replacing the fuel pump on a hunch.... My trustworthy tech looked inside the tank when he replaced the pump and didn't see anything bad..... So... after stress testing the coils replacing the plugs and sundry other time wasters.. I am the "benefactor".... I drove the car - about 10 seconds after coming to a stop, it would run rough for about 15 seconds.... (there is a sidebar here... wait for it). It would then clear up. It was explained to me that it would miss badly on driveaway when we were having an event.... DUH!... ignition is breaking down, yeah? "BZZZZT!!!!".. Nope.... if we wait for the event to end... driveaway is normal. Here I am... trusting my tech to be thorough.... I sepnd too much time watching PIDs on road tests (well... too much time reviewing recordings is what it was). I see some goofy shit... but nothing I can hang my hat on.... He's already checked fuel pressure and it is "good" during the event. For want of anything more constructive to do, I hook up the pressure gauge and purge the air.... into a container.... several times..... OH. my!!!! What is that brown shit at the bottom? Naw... it can't be muddy water... "He" looked..... and he said it was "good". I guess I need an optical rectumdectomy... I have this nerve that connects my eyeball to my asshole... and it gives me a shitty outlook on life.... Who can you trust? YOU.... and nobody else.... Deal with it, Princess... it ain't gonna get any better.... If you want to be good... be good.... think "basics, basics, basics".... If something gets complicated... you have missed something basic... Basics.... "He" checked the basics.. it says so on the RO.... "Performed diagnostics".... Unfortunately, the descriptions should have read "Did the easy shit that I didnt need to think about - Gawd... isn't that what a scan tool is for?".... I wont get canned for it, but my efficiency is something like minus 14000%.... and I am always called to task for it.... DP wants these guys to make their own mistakes so we can weed the good from the bad.... How do I let that kind of crap happen to MY customers.... Too often we overlook the simplest of things... we assume things based on etherial ideas..... Basics, basics, basics.... Did I mention that we need to check the basics... and we need to check them honestly? Gawd... I was born a hundred years too late....

Now the penny is dropping.... These things are coming off warranty in droves.... These things are spendy to fix the right way.... Many of these things are going to land in your bays as "unfixables" by independant shops.... But not before that independant bleeds the owner dry with hacks, bitch-fixes and any other number of "non-standard" repairs. This has the chance of turning any estimate into a nightmare.... It is difficult to look professional if we are to keep calling the customer saying "Oh, by the way...". Be aware that these "non-standard" repairs ARE being made.... Realize that they have the possibility of putting your repair estimate into a place you don't want it to go.... Know that we will see more and more of them as time passes.... Not only will be be expected to learn all the new stuff coming "down the pipe".... we may have to learn what depths others may stoop to trying to reinvent the wheel... In effect... stuff coming UP the pipe....

Here's the rub, Larry.... someone out there is going to bitch fix it for cheap. When that repair shits the bed, ALL techs will be a matter of scorn... And the real conumdrum... even though the last repair attempt didn't last, the proper repair attempt will have the owner saying something like "the last guy didn't want that much..." or "Geez... I already paid a bunch of money for that and now you want more????"... Yes... I had a shitty day.... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif

If you go in to their "sample" replies, their "experts" have no qualms about cutting and pasting from factory manuals... Perhaps this may not be direct marketing for the material, but it is included with a "for fee" reply... Maybe I'm just a little too straight laced.....

Anyone ever checked this out? Especially the part where these guys are SELLING copyright material?

Look at it this way... at least you have a know good tester.... as long as you don't get screwed up by a VIN mismatch or something...

I recently had a 5R110 woth the reverse one way clutch bound up... Some pieces came out of it and scored the reverse planetary carrier where the fibres sit... Half way in to the job, I saw another thread about guys needing prior approval to wipe their @sses and checked... sure as sh!t, I needed prior approval... Another 5R110, the boss screwed up his approval application on replacing a trans that hotline told us top replace (a trans that fit the water in fluid TSB)... Ford paid us what they felt it would have taken to overhaul the trans... we barely broke even on that puppy.

I'm still trying to integrate the Genysis into daily use (meaning use it Fords as well.... be nice to use this investment all we can).... Without a decent place to "rack" it, it usually gets put back into it's travel case and forgotten about (the PDSs hang on the wall and the IDSs are on carts - ready to go at a moments notice). Thus far, the Genysis has been a pleasure to use... The GUI is easy to work with and it hasn't failed to communicate with the few vehicles I've connected to (including a Hyundai sonething-or-other).

Yes... just cut a separate RO and do a service part warranty like normal....

That can actually be done either way - in the head or in the block.... We've had heads done for two customers (yes, we do high-perf work when the proper opportunity arrives... bring your chequebook) - makes for less labour and easier shipping even though keeping the rings in place can be a little bit of an adventure when the heads are the "receiver".

ATS in Arvada Colorado can set you up with gaskets and replacement rings if needed...They are basically the Ford multilayer gaskets but cut to accomodate the rings...

Aaron.... think "rope"....

Bruce... that stuff is simply marvelous.... the amount of patience it takes to create it must be astounding... My hat is off to you.... For the DMM, I'm starting to wonder if most guys should have just saved their money... they get so confused way too easily.... I always have to chuckle when a tech gets a B+ drop across a light that isn't lit.... and he has to take the bulb out and squint at it to see if it's good or not.... Or if he actually falls for Fords hokey test procedures. <mumbling something derogatory about checking grounds with an ohmmeter> Come to think of it... don't teach anyone how to use the DMM... that is one of the very few things that sets me (at least) apart from the mainstream....

As jay has pointed out... we usually fail miserably at learning from history... Something that was meandering through my addled old brain as I drove back from Edmonton on Monday.... I'm driving an 02 SuperCrew 4X4.... bigger than my 93 SuperCab (interiorwise), cushier, quieter could have ever hoped to be... much better fuel mileage - even while towing.... In our area, the modular engines have proven to have a much better expected service life than the old technology cam in block engines (as long as we don't abuse them too badly in the process). I couldn't help but think that powertrain technology has come a long, long way. Not to be contrary to Jays thoughts... but we are seeing owners polarized in their vehicle choices... sometimes for the wrong reasons.... Ever seen a Focus with a trailer hitch on it? For some, pump island shock is just another fact of life.... yours truly included... No matter what I buy, the last question on my mind is what it get's for fuel mileage (guilty parties, raise your hands). Gazing in to my crystal ball, I see a schism looming on the horizon.... The large SUV market is dying... but there will always be something like the SD Crew Cab... designed more as a work truck, but purchased by those like me. There will always be a market for a light pick up... But, I think fugly little critters like the Flex will be the corporate mainstay in the future.... Another thought.... The Chevy 350 started out life as a 265ish inch motor back in the mid-50s. One of the first thin wall casting motors, it enjoyed a life span of over 40 years in different bore/stroke combinations.... Today, we see the 6.0... both a building block and a stepping stone at the same time... Part of it was an "interim" motor and part of it formed the basics for yet another "interim" motor (the 6.4)... The future, gentlemen, is going to be most interesting....

Many moons ago... when Great Spirit ride horse... Khana-jun had "gallon". Khana-jun "gallon" bigger and better than whimpy paleface gallon (like Khana-jun beer better than whimpy paleface "love in a canoe" beer)... This brave warrior remember gasoline... gasoline with lead... make-um heap horsepower for that day.... This gasoline was less than 35 coppers for one Khana-jun gallon. Many moons ago, many Braves speak badly of high gas prices. All things change.... but all things stay the same....

I wish.... when you buy land in Canada (I'm sure the US is the same), all you get is the "surface rights". I have a one gallon metal gas can I bought back when Christ was a cowboy.... New, this container wouldn't hold more than 30 cents worth of gas... Last time I filled it, the tab was right around 4 bucks.... and that doesn't include the 2 cycle oil I put in the can.... I went to Edmonton last Sunday.... I'm about 2.5 hours or so from that city... gas is $1.099 per liter.... An hour and a half to the southeast is Westlock.... $1.049 per liter. That last hour into Edmonton will get the price back up o $1.089 per liter... It has nothing to do with reality... and everything to do with what the market will bear....

Used to be (a euphamism for "back in the day") that there was a movement towards "zero defects".... The engineers felt that we could build a perfect world. "Perfect" is a very spendy, very lofty goal.... And then the bean counters stepped up.... They decided that more money could be made if we expected our customers to be our quality control.... "The new part is bad? Let's have the tech jump through hoops and make claims for service part warranty and give the guy another "new" part....". Used to be, a new part was a new part in every sense of the word. Today? New simply means "previously unused"... No bad, new sensors on our end..... YET. But I have heard that there are concerns... And, of course, the general public will call all of them shit because one of them was bad... We are the face that the customers see... so it will be our fault...

I didn't realize that it could be gotten out like that... learn something new every day.... During our 6.4 class, we took the motor down in layers.... and, with four techs per group, you don't have to turn away for very long to miss stuff.... Until recently, the 6.4 has been very good to us...