help identifying mysterious black box

[carlp]

All-
I have an unidentifed block box located above/near the drivers kick panel. It has a large grey connector going to it. My car is an 88 4cyl converted to carburetor v8. The car seems to run without this, but I am trying to find out what it is and what it did. The wiring appears to be burned connecting to it, so I am sure it is now no-functional. The part # is worn off but the top of it says TRW. Does anyone know what it is? Inside there is a circuit board with 2 relays and some resistors, transistors, diodes and 1 capacitor. It does not appear to be state of the art electronics. Please help!

 

[twolo4u2c2]

picture might help.

 

[carlp]

I have attached the picure. Sorry it is not more clear, but my camera phone is not very good.

 

[jrichker]

It may be the interval wiper timer or the cruse control amplifer.

 

[carlp]

The wiper delay still works with it disconnected and there is no indication the car ever had cruise control. Can you think of anything else?

 

[Saleen0679]

That might be the cooling fan controller that the 2.3L are equipped with.

 

[carlp]

Since it had some relays and heavy gauge wire going to it, I bet you are right. Thanks for solving the mystery.

 

[Fett]

The cooling fan in a 2.3 is controlled by the CCRM, which is in the engine compartment.

There should be an engineering number on it, which should look like a Ford part number. Something to the effect of E9AF-XXXXX-AA. What is that number, I will tell you what that box is.

 

[carlp]

The #'s are illegible. I found a wiring diagram in my Haynes manual and it shows an ac fan controller that might be the part. One of the main wires going to this thing is a yellow/grey wire. According to the maunal a yellow grey wire goes to the AC fan controller. Do you thin k this could be it?

 

[Saleen0679]

The cooling fan controller for the 1988 2.3L is attached to the LH instrument panel support.

If you want to verify the wires they are as follows:

Yellow/Red
Orange/Black
Orange/Light Blue
Black
Brown/Yellow
Pink/Black
Black/Yellow
Gray/Yellow

 

[carlp]

The picture does not look quite right, but the wiring is dead on. Thanks for helping solve the mystery. I cut it out of the car tonight. The wires were burned near the connector and appeared to have been shorting out. I cut all of the wires back and sealed them off with shrink tape. -Probem solved.

 

[Saleen0679]

The picture isn't the best representation, but it was the best I could find that clarified the location. The box should be wider and flat and I thought the connection was facing down instead of to the side.

 

[Roland69]

that's the box that they use to see what hapened 10 seconds before a crash...like on planes. They always come up with "Dude hold my beer and watch this"

 

[bennettracing]

Yes, I can confirm (since I'm re-wiring the car completely...) that is the module used to control the electric fan on 4cyl cars. Mine was burned up in my car as well, possibly a factory problem, most likely the result of some jackas* trying to incorrectly wire in a switch to their fan however...