back to the BA again,

I got lots of free BF bits today... firstly I got a BF Fairmont steering column and drivers lock. The column has the usual snapped spring pin.. but spent all arvo on it and now it has three steel pins where the cast alloy one was before. 1 pin holds the spring and the other two hold the plastic housing weight off the first pin so it doesn't' do the same thing the factory done did. I also moved the spring pin over by 2mm further than factory.. this applies a smidge more spring pressure.. I did that because my pins are thicker than the snapped factory one was and there is some friction, the extra spring pressure negates that. I took photos of the whole procedure. It should get very smooth once the plastic matches the pins nicely. The point for me is that the start section is now very nicely spring loaded.

I also have in my boot the complete rear loom from a BF fairmont from the towbar and reverse sensors to the side air bag sensor all the way to the dash... and I'm getting the rest of the cars looms too. fairly soon I will convert the car to a BF fairmont turbo from an electrical system perspective.. I'm just not sure if BF fairmont uses a different PCM to the Turbo BF. (meaning the wiring and the PCM are different.. if not, then I should be able to get my Tune in a BF version and swap the engine bay loom and PCM... round about the same time that I do the dash loom. Can anyone tell me the difference between the turbo and fairmont looms in the BF's? Also, is the tune on a BF the only difference between fairmont and Turbo? cos I can fix that with my Binary edit.

The colour ICC and BEM are already from a BF and I have a BF cluster here too if I need it.

Later on that will give me the.choice of a ZF auto I so decide. This Fairmont bf is a BTR like my BA.

Eventually I'll have upgraded everything that made it a BA.. (I've decided to get a BFII NA bottom end and put my head on it. So I can up the compression from the 8:1 I have now. I run 110 octane now and the charge is chilled as.. I can get away with higher boost and more compression then I can on Premium.

Ok, so the BF barrel has been repaired and it came out perfectly.. it's in the car now and I've now keyed in the key to the system.

I only had one BF key for now.. so I keyed one BF key and the old BA key too.. that way I can swap back if I need to for some reason.. (can't imagine why though)

Anyway, there are some photos as it might help someone else. I used 3 pins instead of one... because I didn't want it breaking ever again, so two of the pins are there to support the weight of keys etc, the third actually does the work of holding the spring.

Here is a before shot of the barrel with the back plate and mech removed.. you can see the snapped off metal where the tab used to be.


After I cleaned it up and used a dremmel to grind the area flat.. I drilled some tiny holes.



Then I got three small screws (they were fine threaded and not self tappers) and screwed the in the whole by tappering the ends a tiny bit with the dremmel and then pushing them in like a mofo while turning... they are very solidly in. then I took the screws back out.. cut off the heads and ground the sides flat.. Then screwed them back in using pointy nose pliars to get them in.

The end result looked like this:


I did a bit of adjusting to get them in exactly the right place so they were not binding on the plastic or spring of the mech as it turned.. then I re-assembed the whole kit.

Before I put the back of the lock back in.. I used the dremmel to put some extra notches on the back so I have 8 points holding the back on rather than the standard 4.. then I put a drop of superglue on 4 of them just because I'm crazy paranoid.


Lastly I put it all back together and used FMP and my mongoose cable to code the BF key to my BEM.. (and the BA one just in case) that was fiddly to do because the BA key doesn't fit in the BF barrel so how do you turn it on with the key to code it? In my case I had the reader hanging off the harness and not sitting around the barrel where it usually goes so I could just put it beside whatever key I had to code while turning the lock with the BF key.. worked well enough.

The end result is perfect if I do say so.. The pins are much stronger than the die cast tab was originally and here are three pins to spread the load of any weight.. I am stoked with the result.

I made a vid of the new column in action..
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lastly, I thought I'd post a pic of the config options in FMP for the BA falcon as I've not seem them on here before..


happy easter everyone.

so how can you use both keys mate ,because i have to swap over the barrel my self so my engine swap starts without having to get it tuned in .was going to change the barrel back at the tuning shop so i have same key for my door lock

Watch the youtube video in my last post.. at the end you can see how I started the car without the BF key being coded into the BEM.

Basically I took the sensor ring that sits around the barrel off and had it hanging down under the column with the old key stuck in the middle. had to try a couple of positions of the key before it worked as expected.. the ring doesn't have much range.

If you need the car to run regardless of what key is in the barrel, take the sensor ring off and leave it connected under the dash somewhere with the old key taped into place in the ring to turn off PATS as expected. It's a shame you are in QLD, if you were over here I could code it in for you.

When I said I coded my old BA key as well as the new key.. I meant i did it in case there is some reason to put the old barrel/column back in.. I can't think of any such reasons as this new one is a much better repair then my old one.. (with which I was experimenting to find the best pin location and as a result it didn't have sufficient spring pressure to return the key to ignition completely after start)

FMP doesn't much like only one key.. in fact they tell you it won't... they are wrong.. you can do one key, but you have to let it time out after you code the first one before it will save it.. I thought that it might be handy still having the code in there for the old key and barrel as well so I can have either.. so I coded the old BA key and the new BF key... the keys are nothing at all alike.. the BA key is like the EF/EL keys and the BF key looks more like a commodore key. The BA barrel will not fit in the BF column and vice versa as the lock pins and locator lugs are in different places.
Can't believe they went through the effort of changing the key type and barrel and didn't bother fixing the spring issue. I also have trouble believing ford service folks would charge more than a grand to replace something that is relatively easy to fix.

Last edited by frankieh on Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

thanks ,i will keep that in mind

well, the JTG liquid gas injection system is now running perfectly and the car went over the pits without problem.

I can't tell any difference at all on LPG.. it seems to run idenically.. makes sense really since it's a piggy back system off the petrol PCM and that is running a tune for Premium 98. The economy seems roughly the same as on Petrol but it's too early to tell.. the problem I have is that he car was not even remotely economical on petrol. but here in Perth LPG is 88-90 cents a litre verses roughly 168-172 for premium 98 or 100. If the economy between fuels is roughly equivalent I should get back the money at around 40 bucks a week with the amount of KM I'm doing..

I spose I could up the boost/advance the timing a fair bit now that I'm running LPG... 110 octane verses 98, but I think first I'll remove the front intercooler and put the Water to air system in.

hi mate ,just changing the key barrel over to my ute from the wreaked turbo car .so which part what part is coded to the key .i am also using the box that is around the key part (clear plastick ). i can not use the complete column from the turbo 6 due to it being bent from crash .thanks for any help .ps is that part with all the wires coming out of the ignition barrel coded ?or only the key ( key and computer only ?)

There is a litle chip in the key itself.. that chip is read by the clear plastic thing that fits around the barrel with the green wiring plug in it..

So if you take that chip reader off and put it behind the dash somewhere with the old key glued into the correct place, you won't need to worry about the PATS security system anymore.

ok so what i have done to the ignition is good to go then no problem thanks mate

no probs... good luck.

You actually need to have the key removable.
If you have the key taped up next to the pat reader it will start a couple of times.
But when you turn the car off and lock it , once you go to start it again no go.
You have to remove the key away from the system to reset it.
We had this problem once on a mates daughters car.
Took us a couple of hours of head scratching to sort it out.

just hope the thing starts when i finely got engine and box back in car .just got most of the interior back in after running the battery cable true the ute and out the back under the tray

That is interesting to know.. Thanks Mr Matt,

The solution is pretty simple tho.. For what you say to be true, the chip reader must have a permanent positive power feed... Find that wire and hook it up to accessories instead. That way it will reset every time you turn the car off...

hi mate i fitted the radio out of the wreck today and turned on the key ,i got code error .but i tried it a few times ,also used the remote lock .i got it going eventually .also the fuel pump works so the engine would then start also i hope (engine not in car )so the key works fine ,thanks for your help and good advise mate

I don't think the fuel pump is indicative of much.. but its a start, once the engine is in you will be able to see if the PATS system is functioning properly as there is a security light in the cluster that will light up if it's not when you try to start it.

good luck! It's cool what you are doing. I'm going to try to convert my whole car to a BF.. so will be in a similar boat before long.