alternator problems?

[illSHOyou]

I just wanted to provide a update on my parasitic draw issues. Come to find out that my football on the climate control side is drawing .70 amps after GEM power down. I think perhaps a resistor circuit is failed, the heatsink continues to put off heat 2 hours after vehicle shutdown, and disconnecting the lower left plug removes that .70 amp draw to the sytem. Other than that the ATC seems to work fine, but could also be related to my lack of heat in the car.

 

[SHOZ123]

That's the same thing that happen to mine. If you take it out and pull out the plug for the lower part of the IC it will stop the draw I bet.

 

[illSHOyou]

That's the same thing that happen to mine. If you take it out and pull out the plug for the lower part of the IC it will stop the draw I bet.

It does exactly that.

 

[98SF19]

need clarification Paul

I'm having what seems to be a parasitic draw and based on this thread, I suspect I'm having similar issues - the football. The radio's been cutting out, my A/C hasn't worked in a while (12v to compressor starts it up so I suspect the controls in the football) and I get a clicking in the tape deck area every 10 seconds or so when everything is off.

I'd like clarification on the last few entries here. Paul said "take it out and pull out the plug for the lower part of the IC it will stop the draw" I don't know what he means. Lower part of the IC? I'm familiar with most acronyms related to this car (owner of a '98 since '00) but as this may be the answer to my dying battery issues, I'd like to know what I'm going after before popping open the football.

Local shop measured my engine-off load at about 0.5 amps. They said that was normal, but after reading about others' problems, seems be a bit high. I just hope to **** I don't have to start rewiring down to the starter or alt.

Thanks!

 

[SHOZ123]

The football. Take it out and there are some plugs on the back. 3 on the '96-'97 and just two on the '98-'99s.

 

[98SF19]

Thank you. I'll let you know if this does it.

 

[98SF19]

unplugged, but weird behavior

I finally got around to making some football-removing hooks from a metal hanger. Took some fennagling, but once off, I was able to unhook the plug on the drivers side of tape deck. Like the previous poster, I noticed that the heatsink was very hot after 3 hours of car off. I took a drive and noticed that even though the football had no power, it was blowing hot air in defrost mode, which got hotter as the car warmed up more. I really don't mind driving around for a while with no radio or A/C (a/c hasn't worked in a while - hi-press. switch in football is prime suspect), but what I can't do is drive around dealing with hot air in my face. I get enough of that at work.:argue:

Tips?

 

[SHOZ123]

A replacement football should fix it.

 

[Liquid_force]

I'm on my 2nd replacement football.
Original had a climate control issue.
The second one's display started flickering after a few months.
Thrid one's been problem free for the past 6 mo or so.

I've been able to find them on car-part.com for around $40 shipped for the past couple years. Ebayers tend to want ~100+

 

[kevinspann]

Defaults to fan on, on defrost. Pull the fuse out, it'll do the same thing.

Same EATC in suitably equipped Taurus/sable

 

[98SF19]

Any nos footballs exist?

Good info. So as these cars are becoming ancient (in Ford years), I almost feel foolish asking, but are these replacement footballs from used vehicles or NOS? If I could get another 10 or 12 years out of a new one, I'd gladly pony up, but I'm betting they're all used, especially if they can be had for less than $50 shipped! Are there any resources for t/s'ing these things or would I have to take my chances with a used one (or two, or three . . . )

Also, what's going on with the white rubber hose that connects to the back?

Thanks again for the replies.

 

[Liquid_force]

If there are any new ones left it would probably be a needle in a haystack situation trying to find it/them.

It looks like there are 10-20 on car-part.com right now in the $25-35 range, plus shipping of course.

 

[98SF19]

Not gonna pony up

Did I say I'd be willing to buy NOS? I'd like to retract that now . . .

3rd priced item on this page . . . but hey, they show it as discounted!
http://www.fordpartsgiant.com/partl...1998-ford-taurus-1897763-1899243-1927176.html

 

[98SF19]

EATC repair

So I've been driving around w/o AC for a good while now, hasn't gotten too hot here in FL yet. I eventually pulled the blower fuse to **** the hot air in my face. Not yet willing to buy another used unit that may be as ***** as mine, I scoured the net for EATC repair vendors and found one that seemed to have done a lot of work on these. "Brian" stated that the head unit only turns AC on/off, which I believe is wrong. This is true for the non-automatically controlled model I think. His opinion was that, from those they've worked, the problem is usually in the car. Perhaps they don't even attempt to repair ours.

Q: Am I right about the manual heads only controlling on/off AC?
Q (2): What is the sensor that plugs into the right side of the EATC (right next to white hose)? Is this specific to the EATC?

Thanks

 

[SHOZ123]

The EATC head controls the blend door. The high pressure switch will control the compressor on and off on all cars.

 

[98SF19]

blend door & HPS

By controlling blend door, would this also control air flow? It always seemed that the blower would push more when input temp was much lower than ambient.

HPS is the yellow plug next to compressor (inboard), below front exh. manifold?

 

[SHOZ123]

The hi pressure switch runs the hi speed fan too so it has 4 wires. One pair of the wires is normally closed the other normally open.

The blend door just directs air over the evaporator. It doesn't change the amount of air. That's done by the auto speed control of the fan.

The EATC temp sender checks the temp of the interior air as it gets sucked in the little slots on the football face. I don't know what kind of logic the EATC uses to match fan speed to load demand.

 

[98SF19]

I don't know what kind of logic the EATC uses to match fan speed to load demand.

You mean you don't have the root locus in your back pocket?
Slackin' Nimz!

I need to jump my HPS then. But regardless, the head unit had a circuit problem (parasitic draw & radio cutting out frequently) so the system would have to be tested with a known good EATC, which takes me back to square 1.

 

[SHOZ123]

The PCM also controls the hi speed radiator fan via the ECT input.

From my understanding...


The AC clutch will come on if the lo pressure switch is closed, and if the hi pressure switch is closed. Then the EACT sends a signal to the AC clutch relay which feeds the AC clutch coil.

 

[SHOZ123]

Here's the AC clutch coil WD for the 98 SHO. They call the lo pressure switch the cycling switch.