96 T-Bird No Power - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

thunder04 · 09-23-2005, 21:14

96 T-Bird with 4.6L V8

I just replaced the left and right upper control arms in my 96 T-Bird (rides as smooth as glass, now)...but a problem has surfaced.

To get to one of the bolts on the passenger side, I had to disconnect a rather large harness (a black box on the firewall near the passenger strut). I disconnected it before disconnecting the battery (which may be the issue). I then disconnected the battery, thinking this probably woud be a good idea. I did my work, re-connected the harness, re-connected the battery and decided to take the car for a test-drive. So I pull out onto the street, and floor it. The car mediocrely speeds up, about 3,500-4,000 RPM it kicks up a bit, then shifts into second and mediocrely speeds up. No wheel slippage what-so-ever (I'm a big guy, but I only way 250!). So I cruise down a frontage road...going about 40, and floor it. The car doesn't shift right away! It sits there and creeps up, shifts up once, creeps some more, then shifts up again.

The car was much more perkier before!! It would actually burn the rear tires. Even going 35-40ish and punching it...the car would upshift and the tires would chirp.

To summarize:

I disconnected the black box-like harness on the passenger side of the firewall (to gain access to a bolt), THEN I disconnected the battery. Once my work was done, I re-connected the harness and then the battery.

Did I break something? Does the computer need to be reset in a special way? Do I have to pay a guy ($70!!) to hook the car up to a diagnostic machine just to "reset" something?

Freshmeat · 10-11-2005, 11:26

Are you still having this problem?

First off, to correct a misconception, when you nail the gas, the transmission downshifts, not upshifts.

Also, you may have popped a fuse in the black box (assuming it's a fuse panel, which I'm fairly sure it is). Open it up and check all the fuses/relays and see if any are bad. If none are bad, you may have tripped something in the computer, which would require a professional's intervention.