Ford Repair: CFI on 84.5 Mustang, double pumper, holley carb

Question
I have an 84.5 Anniversay Mustang with the CFI 5.0 and AOD.  Is there an upgrade or replacement CFI unit for these vehicles or can it be converted to carb?  Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Guy McDonald
816-453-7713
oldsfun@hotmail.com

Answer
Guy-

  This seems like too much of a coincidence.  You've got the same car I do (1984 1/2 GT350 hatchback/T-tops #842), you're thinking of the same swap I did years ago, and you live right across state line from where I do (when not at school I live in Overland Park).  As for your question, as I've already implied, it's quite possible.  There aren't any upgrades or modifications to be made that would make the stock CFI better.  I went with Carter carb/Weiand Stealth intake combo but in hind sight I made some mistakes.  First of all, I had a carb with a universal linkage that I bought a kickdown adapter for.  Kickdown adapters are not supposed to work with the AOD's TV linkage but I guess by sheer luck my transmission worked fine.  If you don't mind using a Holley carb, Sacramento Mustang used to sell a TV linkage adapter to mate Holleys and AODs.  It sold for around $100 a few years ago...I'm not sure if they still make it.  Aside from that you'll need to change the ignition over to something like an MSD setup since the ignition control module won't work anymore.  I went with an MSD coil (probably not necessary, but a good upgrade), an MSD billet distributor (a necessity) and an MSD 6A box (also neccessary).  If you want to keep your tach, you'll have to cut the wire out of the old ignition harness and connect it to the coil (if I remember right it's a green wire with a yellow tracer, but I could be wrong there).  Aside from that all you really need is a low pressure fuel pump and you're good to go.  I wouldn't use a carb bigger than 600cfm or so.  My Carter was 625cfm and it seemed a little big (even though I did a cam swap as well when I swapped the carb).  A Holley 600cfm double pumper should work just fine.  Hope this helps.

Steve