Dear Duke,

An excellent point! You see, on some years of Fords, the conformal coating that you have to remove from the contacts is lacquer-based, and it's harder and thinner. Later years use a silicon-based conformal coating that is generally softer and thicker.

Superchips just started using that green Scotch-Brite pad in the summer of last year, so for all the years prior to that, we always scraped those contacts with whatever implement we had handy. And I still do it like that to this day, as I have refined my installation technique so that I don't have to remove either the top or bottom cover for the computer. I use a small straight-blade screwdriver, from a jeweler's screwdriver kit. It's small enough that I have plenty of room to work even on the bottom of the connector without removing the cover. But at any rate, that is why you see the difference in those instructions. Ain't progress great?

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Online Superchip ordering system:https://www.f150online.com/scpp/index.html

 

That brings up a good point Mike that I forgot to mention. Mine was the old heavy laquer type with the white grease thrown on for good measure. That is probably why my first attempt at scraping with the screw driver did not get enough off. Course by the time I had scraped for a while I got nervous about over doing it and stopped a little too soon. Then when I got the no start I was not really suprised as I knew I was not confident I was seeing the "right" silver color and kind of expected it. But actually the contacts with this very thin coat of laquer still on it looked a little like copper which I knew was bad news so it fooled me in to stopping too soon. I went back and used the sponge to get the last little bit off. It only took about two swipes at that point to see clean shiney silver instead of the dull silver/coppery color I had gotten to before. Then... boom... it ran like a top. I actually combined both methods in the long run. I could do it again in a heart beat now. Ooops!

 

Thanks Bob--glad it was helpful... and that was the idea, to make it easier to install and have one central place to go for all the info you need on installing one. From the sounds of it, however, looks like their shippers need to double-check the box before shipment! There are some other valuable things you'll need, so make sure you get them. For me, Mike Troyer overnighted that stuff.

--Duke

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2000 F-150 Lariat, 4x2, 4.6L automatic Supercab, Styleside, Blue with gold two-tone, 3.55 slip axle, class III towing package, overhead console, sliding rear window, keyless entry, leather interior, in dash CD, Ford/Duraliner bedliner, Ford chrome nerf bars, Ford bug deflector, Steel Horse billet grille, Leer hard tonneau cover, Superchip, Airaid, Billet door sills & antennae, Gibson split rear exit. My How-To Articles

 

Dear cphilip,

Hey, no problem! We're cool. And you make an excellent point about the lack of perspective available in email or "the typed word", for lack of a better term. Like you said, you can't see their eyes.

It's good to share that information, of course. We have found from that if an F-150 is equipped with the Offroad package and other equipment, that there will sometimes be a pair of solenoids mounted on the firewall that block your access to the wiring harness unless you remove the battery. This is just feedback from a couple of customers over the years, as we have not ever had to remove a battery in a late-model F-150 in any of our installations, but others sure have, like you for example. A few guys have gone ahead and removed the battery just to give themselves even more room, and whatever works for anyone is of course fine. I just wanted to let everyone know what we have seen so far, and what others have reported back to us as well on these '97 & later F-150's.

See you later,

------------------
Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Online Superchip ordering system:https://www.f150online.com/scpp/index.html

[This message has been edited by Superchips_Distributor (edited 02-09-2000).]