Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods TPS Adjustment mod... has anyone done this?

can this mod be done at home with some hammers and crow bars or does a mechanic or a dealer have to step this up?

All you need:

Digital voltage meter.
Philips head screw driver.
and from the looks of it, that black valve cover cover thingy with the 24V stuff has to come off... so you'll need a socket wrench for that (If I remember correctly).
and to make the job easier, get a pair of either safety pins or streight pins.

As long as you have those tools, it takes about 5 minutes tops.

Oh yea, and before you do anything to it, you don't just "bump it up", you need to know where you are going with it, that's what I'm working on finding out right now.

MCJ777, did you find out where he set it to?

Can you explain the process that the Mustang crowd uses for this? Or post a link somewhere?

I will... but again, unless we know where to go with the adjustment, it's not really worth it because you can throw the sensor out of range very easily (not that you can't put it back though).

In Mustangs, with the hood open, you locate your TPS on your throttle body... directly across from your t-body linkage. Take your + and - from your DIGITAL voltage meter and probe a straight pin or a safety pin through the + wire of your meter and then you probe that same pin through the + wire of the TPS (there are 3 wires... you just have to poke around till you find the right ones). You do the same with the - wire... pin through the meter's wire and that same pin through the - wire on the TPS to make the connection. Make sure the wires aren't touching any metal so that they don't ground out, and make sure that the pins don't touch each other either... it's kinda? tight in there, so pay attention. You then take your philips screw driver and loosen the 2 screws holding the TPS on the throttle body... they don't need to be backed out too far, just far enough to move it with your hand. Now here's the part that I need to find out the correct voltage for. You then key the car on... don't start it, just put the key to the on position and leave it there while you do this. You will get a voltage reading, more than likely even on the Contour it will be below 1V, on Mustangs (especially 5.0's) you set the voltage by twisting the TPS to get .98V with the throttle closed. Once you obtain this voltage, tighten the screws down... be careful though because when you tighten the screws, it is such a sensitive sensor that you can move the position of it with tightening the screws. 9 times out of 10 you need to pull the TPS off of the car and drill out the mounting holes for more room for adjustment, don't be afraid to do this as long as you are careful... you aren't going to hurt anything as long as you don't break the screw holes too bad and render the sensor useless. Once it is in place... twist the throttle plate once or twice to simulate you giving the car throttle and let it fall back to the idle position and see where the voltage goes. It should fall back to the exact same place every time or within 1-2 hundredths of a volt. If everything is all set and working properly, you can now un-plug your meter and turn your car off... and then turn it back on.

Again, I don't know where the voltage should be set at because if you don't set it right, depending on where the sensor is set normally, you could fool the car into thinking it's in part throttle position and have an extremely high idle. Anyway, I am not responsible for anyone messing up their car in any way shape or form by reading and following these guidelines... like I said, this is how I do this on Mustangs, so here ya' go. Maybe MCJ777 will post back and hopefully get what voltage the guy set his to. I will play with it sometime anyway, just not in the next couple of weeks, I am really busy and don't have time right now.

Set TPS voltage at .98-.99 volts. Great response with smoother driveability.

So then I assume that the same rules apply? Set the TPS on Contour's to .98V then?

Casper's Electronics makes a plug-in device for better trottle response. In my Summit Racing catalog they offer one for Ford's between 1986-93. They may have one for later Ford's. I had one on my 92 Pontiac GA and it made a huge difference.

Those devices do exactly this too... they increase the voltage. Still waiting to hear back to find out where the TPS was set at.