Yes, you can use ANY eatc!

[quadmasta]

I have a 91+ I have no money to purchase a Gen II EATC. Here's how I did it:
If you look at Ohioshodude's picture of the pre 93 unit you'll see two 12-pin ribbon cables. All I did was extend those wires and put my "faceplate" in my visor. It's really simple

 

[quadmasta]

I thought Dave was gonna help me out

 

[Jr's Sho]

Just e-mail him, he may not check this thread all the time. BTW, the 1991 EATC I pulled from a junkyard has 16 wires, and not 14. Weird huh?
Just to let you guys, I had a shop solder a new 1995 hard button faceplate onto my old circuit board and everything works perfect.

 

[haydenm315]

This thread is quite interesting. Thanks to the doctor, wiring up a new face shouldn't be difficult. I've got a couple small electronic soldering iron and many a years experience soldering stuff THe idea I originally had to fix my eatc buttons was to get a unit with their rubber counterparts from a sable, lincoln, grand marquis, or vic. On my 93 unit the buttons are all seperate. I assumed that you could just swap the buttons out, simply as that. Obviously the most current buttons are much fatter and this wouldn't work, but wouldn't that work with an older rubber unit? How much should I expect to pay for an EATC unit from the local pick and pull?

I'm gonna hit up the junkyard and need to know the quickest way to tell if the eatc is a green or blue glowing unit.

 

[haydenm315]

Ok... this thread is way dead, but I figured joining the non cracked eatc club is something I'd like to accomplish. Work let out early today because of the cold, so I went to the junkyard. Amongst all the cracked eatcs in sables and lincolns, I managed to find a 95 towncar with the meatier plastic buttons. No crown vics in the yard. Must be rare to find them since they're such reliable cars? Peering into the case, I see the 2 8 wire ribbon cables. I look forward to improving my interior. Thanks for all the help once again.

 

[drdave]

Not dead, just slow. I'll give you a proper response later tonight when I have some time.

 

[haydenm315]

drdave:
Not dead, just slow. I'll give you a proper response later tonight when I have some time.

sounds good. The unit I was able to salvage looks decent but is kinda dirty. The buttons are all sticky from abuse, but none are cracked and the writing is intact. It's definately more attractive than the standard crapola unit in my 93. Hopefully I've got some plastic safe electronics cleaner handy.
I was stupid and threw away the old eatc that I wrecked to ****. Now I've gotta get it done in one night successfully or I dont' have heat until I get another one. I think I'll wait a few days to see if anything pops up on here. One issue that I see if that vent and norm a/c are swapped around. I think norm a/c replaces panel/floor. The wiring looks to be as you've mentioned without the extra ribbon for the light and the 5 wires on the blower control ****.

<small>[ January 20, 2004, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: haydenm315 ]</small>

 

[haydenm315]

The button layout on the lincoln unit has norm a/c instead of panel/floor. The vent and norm a/c button are also swapped. If I wire it straight up to my old eatc board, should I swap those 2 buttons?

 

[drdave]

If it's a hard button unit with the square buttons you may not be able to move the buttons. The glides in the buttons are different size. Even on some of the newer units that have the large rounded buttons, it's not possible to move the buttons.

After doing this for a while, I have realized that there are as many differences in the design of the EATC units as there are days in the year!

 

[haydenm315]

I've reached the point of no return. The cables are unsoldered from my old eatc board and I've begun to solder up some leads. my mom packed up my dad's desoldering tool and it's gone. I'm stuck with an electronics iron and a little squeeze bubble thing. frown

 

[haydenm315]

drdave:
If it's a hard button unit with the square buttons you may not be able to move the buttons. The glides in the buttons are different size. Even on some of the newer units that have the large rounded buttons, it's not possible to move the buttons.

After doing this for a while, I have realized that there are as many differences in the design of the EATC units as there are days in the year!

yeah wtf!?! Now I'm gonna have to swap some wires. How do you strip the ribbon cable? I'm having difficulty with that. I don't have very good desoldering equipment so I had to remove each pin individually and need to restrip the ribbon cable if I'm going to tap into it. I guess I could have cut the ribbon cable before and removed the leads on it individually, but I wasn't thinking.

 

[haydenm315]

haydenm315:

drdave:
If it's a hard button unit with the square buttons you may not be able to move the buttons. The glides in the buttons are different size. Even on some of the newer units that have the large rounded buttons, it's not possible to move the buttons.

After doing this for a while, I have realized that there are as many differences in the design of the EATC units as there are days in the year!

yeah wtf!?! Now I'm gonna have to swap some wires. How do you strip the ribbon cable? I'm having difficulty with that. I don't have very good desoldering equipment so I had to remove each pin individually and need to restrip the ribbon cable if I'm going to tap into it. I guess I could have cut the ribbon cable before and removed the leads on it individually, but I wasn't thinking.

Actually.... fire works quite nicely for taking the coating off the ribbon cables.

 

[drdave]

The pins break quite easily. On some units, I've replaced the OEM cables with 9-pin ribbon cables. I peal away one of the conductors, and then I use a stripper that will strip the remaining 8-pins at the same time.

If I had to use a manual desoldering tool I probably would still have broken buttons. I could do it, but there is no way I'd have the motivation. Good luck.

 

[haydenm315]

Well after over 2 hours, I'm getting close. As expected, the vent and norm a/c buttons are swapped. I'm gonna see if I can trace the paths on the old eatc switchboard and figure out what to do. How did you figure out which wires were which?

 

[haydenm315]

I dunno man... I've tried almost all the wires and still haven't figured out how to get the norm a/c and vent button wiring swapped. I'm beginning to have my doubts. Any ideas? help? It's gonna be freaking cold driving around tomorrow or now it's today frown

 

[drdave]

If I understand correctly, you couldn't move the buttons, so your wanting to move the wires so that the function matches the buttons. If this is correct, take a break and I'll give you the wire-outs tomorrow.

The wiring is strange. It is likely that you'll have to use some extra wires to do it.

 

[haydenm315]

drdave:
If I understand correctly, you couldn't move the buttons, so your wanting to move the wires so that the function matches the buttons. If this is correct, take a break and I'll give you the wire-outs tomorrow.

The wiring is strange. It is likely that you'll have to use some extra wires to do it.

Thanks man... I'm no electrical engineer. In all honesty, I've never had a course in electronics. I tried to read the board schematic but it was confusing. Certain buttons lead to other buttons, and it's got 2 sides. I tried to eliminate wires by tracing the ones that only go to the display but it didn't seem to help me out much in solving the problem. I've discovered which wire leads to the panel/floor button, but it also leads to the automatic button not working. That would be pin 5 on J8 if I'm not mistaken. I've got F5Vf-14A608-ADB (PWB3259 EATC Display/Switchboard). I'm also using EATC Logic board No. 2 PWB2467 F3VF014A608-CD.

 

[drdave]

All right, here we go. Time to warm you up.

This is the wire legend for all displays, but the directions will reference the original display.

Have the board facing you, buttons towards you, ribbon cables facing away. Cable one is to the left; cable two is to the right.

Button 1, MAX: Pin 7 of the first cable, pin 6 of the second cable.

Button 2, VENT: Pins 1 + 3 of the second cable.

Button 3, PNL-FLR: Pins 1 + 4 of the second cable.

Button 4, FLOOR: Pins 1 + 6 of the second cable.

Button 5, FLR-DEF: Pins 1 + 5 of the second cable.

Button 6, DEFROST: Pins 2 + 3 of the second cable.

OUTSIDE TEMP: Pin 7 of the first cable, pin 5 of the second cable.

BLUE/Cooler: Pin 7 of the first cable, pin 3 of the second cable.

RED/Warmer: Pin 7 of the first cable, pin 4 of the second cable.

OFF: Pins 2 + 5 of the second cable.

AUTO: Pins 2 + 5 of the second cable.

So in your case, simply swap pins 3 and 4 of the second cable to reverse the function of the second and third buttons, in your case that being NORM AC and VENT. But beware; swapping these two wires might reverse the functions of the blue and red buttons. I've never re-wired to match the buttons, so this will be interesting to see what happens.

Please post back when you're warm.

Check your PM. I am going to leave you my cell phone number in case you have any questions, as I won't be around my computer much today.

<small>[ January 25, 2004, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: drdave ]</small>

 

[haydenm315]

drdave:

So in your case, simply swap pins 3 and 4 of the second cable to reverse the function of the second and third buttons, in your case that being NORM AC and VENT. But beware; swapping these two wires might reverse the functions of the blue and red buttons. I've never re-wired to match the buttons, so this will be interesting to see what happens.

You're on the money with those wire swaps. Kinda funny how I swapped so many wires but never got it right. The blue and red buttons are now switched like you said, however they can be physically swapped. It's not that big of a deal, unless you know of an easy way to fix it. The other problem I have is with the lighting. 2 of the lights are out in my new unit and of course ford changed the light bulb design. Back to the junkyard I guess, unless you know where I can find those bulbs.

<small>[ January 25, 2004, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: haydenm315 ]</small>

 

[drdave]

You can get the bulbs from some Ford dealers at $10.75 per bulb. If you can't get them, let me know and I can order them for you. I will dig out my notes later and give you the part number that you need.

I'll work on reversing the function of the red and blue buttons as time permits.

Just remembered. The bulbs are almost never bad. They get oxidized being that they conduct with dissimilar metals. Give the bulbs a vinegar bath, or use some contact cleaner on the copper base of the bulbs where they contact the PCB, and clean the contact points on the PCB as well.

<small>[ January 25, 2004, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: drdave ]</small>