Oh No. Is It Another One From Florida?

karthief said:

Is that a shovel head?
Can't tell from the pic
I got a 82 fxrs

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A little newer, a '97 Blockhead. I just finished getting her all back together in November after I wrapped her up pretty bad about 3 years ago. Almost lost a leg and had to relearn how to walk. You know, that old chestnut. Here's a better pic:



And my favorite pic:



Anyway, let me not get carried away talking about motorcycles. I could go on all day! I got my diag tool in the mail today and these are the continuous codes I've got stored in the ECM:

172 and 176 - O2 sensor lean. I assume that's because they're probably in a landfill somewhere by now. The stock exhaust is long gone.
212 - Loss of ignition diagnostic monitor signal/SPOUT circuit grounded. What in tarnation?
542/543 - Fuel pump secondary circuit fault. That may be do to some a**hole punching my car last night and tripping the kill switch in the trunk. That's a whole other story, but it involves some random drunk a**hole, a broken tail light lens, and him taking a trip to county jail for damaging my property. Some people! The stories you hear about Florida and "Florida Man" are all true. Trust me.

The KOEO codes:

515 - ROM test failure. Uhhhhh... that can't be good, right? Could this be erroneous since I didn't have the clutch to the floor when I ran the test?
565 - Canister purge solenoid circuit failure. Is that referring to the charcoal canister for emissions? It's also in a landfill by now.

No TPS codes, unless those need to be tested with KOER?

And last, but certainly not least especially if you're following the original story, I took the car to the cemetery on Mother's Day and patched out in front of my momma's grave. I feel like she would've appreciated that.

Mustang5L5 said:

Erase the codes, go for quick drive around block for few miles, and then do it again. Also do the engine running codes, followed by cylinder balance test.

So of those codes may be old. Did you recently have battery unhooked?


Edit: erase codes using the innova 3145, not by unhooking the battery. It's easy, just follow the manual.

BTW, nice bike and copilot

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I unhooked the battery on Friday for 30 minutes to make it relearn the idle routine with the AC compressor on, so those codes are all fairly fresh. You think I need to reset 'em still? Only idled it Friday, then it sat all weekend while I was out of town with the band. Yesterday it saw like 50 miles on the road, so that's probably when it picked up those codes.

And thanks! I enjoy riding them both. Wait, is this a PG-13 forum?

Yes! 511! I've been so busy straight through since last Thursday so my brain is kinda fried tonight.

Okay, so here's what I just did:

1. Reset the codes with the diag tool.
2. Drove the car until it was normal running temp.
3. Ran a KOEO test. Got 511 & 565 operational codes, and 172 & 212 continuous codes.
4. Ran a KOER test and got 172 & 136 running codes.
5. Ran a KOER test again (because I didn't RTFM), this time got a 412 running code and that's it.
6. Ran the cylinder balance test. It shows cylinders 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, & 8 all throwing codes. Good thing 1 and 4 are still okay, huh? Ha!

Bonus points! Some coolant leaked onto my foot as I was driving. Heater core or head gasket?

This car has an Accel billet distributor and Accel coil in it. Would that make the ECM angry for any reason?

Edit: And yes, I'm 99% sure the O2 sensors are gone unless they're in the headers and not the pipes. This car is running stock shorty headers to an off road x-pipe to (of course) some Flowmaster 40's.

Mustang5L5 said:

Damn. This ones gonna have to wait til I get back to a keyboard and not typing on a phone

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Well that sure doesn't sound good! Take your time, I won't be turning wrench any more tonight anyway. I really do appreciate all the help!

Wow man, that's an awesome amount of information! Thank you! I'll head downstairs in a few to take a look under the car.

Code 511 - Asking my hot rod buddy if this ECM was ever chipped while it was in his possession. I know the car has been tuned previously, so would that cause a 511 code?

Code 212 - The entire distributor has been replaced recently, so maybe the problem is somewhere with the wiring or a short?

Code 412 - IAB is new, not a lick of carbon on it. I recently did the idle reset routine (Last Friday) with the set screw set just above where the idle would surge. The idle problems are so intermittent too. Sometimes it idles perfect, scavenges between gears, and runs like a hot rod. Other times it's idling at 600rpm, shooting up to 1500rpm, and revving itself up to 2500 rpm in between gears. Maybe I need an exorcist and not a mechanic? Ha! Let me make a threat in the specific tech forum and see if anybody has ideas. Thanks again for all the help!

Mustang5L5 said:

If they did a tune with a chip, yes

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Talked to my buddy who did a lot of the work on this car. There's a chip in there.

One down! I got a post up in the tech section, so maybe some of those geniuses can help. Obviously we've exceeded my mechanical knowledge. I think this is my first fuel injected "hot rod" and I'm clearly out of my element. The last Ford "hot rod" I had was a '71 Torino with a 351C. That sucker had a big ole carburetor on it; not a computer in sight!

Mustang5L5 said:

Are all your toys just badass?

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I've had some cool stuff over the years! I'll trickle some pictures in periodically. LOL!

But I sold that Torino back in 2006. A friend of mine gave it to me, literally gave it to me for free, because he was moving out of state. It hadn't run in 5 years and wouldn't start, so I gladly paid for a tow to get it to my house. It ended up needing a new wire from the battery to the starter relay and a right side exhaust manifold. Got 'em in there and it fired up on 5 year old gas! He just move back into town, and I still owe him for that car. I'm going to take him and his wife out to the best steakhouse in town.

Hey, so I crawled under there and checked. The car does have O2 sensors. They're in the exhaust pipe just after the header flange. One for each side.