My 1987 Ranger has not ran well at all since I overheated it some time ago. I made a post about it awhile ago that included videos of the truck running, and I will paste a link to it if you want to check it out for reference. I have had this ranger since I was a very inexperienced mechanic and it has taught me a lot, but i also made many mistakes on this truck. The area of the truck that my ignorant hand wreaked the most havok on may be the wire management under the hood. Somewhere in the mess the inline spout connector decided to get cozy with the exhaust manifold and is now in tough shape, I have a picture below. As I understand it, the spout connector is merely a static plug that connects the two wires that go into it when it is installed. What problems could I expect to encounter with the plug in its current state? Could this in itself cause a rich mixture (or false positives that would lead one to suspect a rich mixture?) or bad timing? How do I go about fixing this? I was considering wiring in a toggle switch in its place please let me know if that is an awful Idea before I do it.

Initial post: https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...-power-163524/

I will not be able to remove the spout connector without some surgery.

 

You will need to cut that connector off and check the wires, make sure they still look OK

Then strip each wire and twist them together and tape it up

The SPOUT wire sends computer spark advance to the TFI module, acts like the Vacuum Advance on older system
It needs to be disconnected when you set Base Spark timing, then reconnected for driving, thats why the SPOUT connector is there to set base spark timing when needed
So doesn't need to be used very often

You can put a connector on each wire end then plug them together so you have a easy disconnect for future spark timing, I wouldn't use a "switch"


If there is no SPOUT signal then engine would be sluggish to react to gas pedal and MPG would be lower since you would be lugging the engine all the time