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"How To" Broken DSI Clip Fix

91K views 113 replies 60 participants last post by  lmcd314 
#1 · (Edited)
:: Fix Dat Busted DSI Clip ::

Introduction:
Okay, so I have just fallen victim to the infamous busted DSI Clip. The part costs $9 bucks and wont be available till Sept...mine is on order. Other than that, you can buy a whole new $260 manifold to get the $9 part. Ummm...no.

Thanks to a post from FORDSVTPARTS, I got some direction on how to fix this...but it had no pics. So with camera in hand I did the job to keep me happy till the new part shows up. (oh yeah, this is my first post of a new thread, and a how-to...go easy on me)..oh yeah, and my server is seeing a lot of traffic these days...so if all 7 img's dont show up, refresh.


Lets Go!

First thing is first....grab your tools and take out your intake. If it is stock, you will need to take the entire box out...open it up, take out the filter, unbolt it from the car and pull it up out. You may also want to take the MAF off the side of the box as well to help keep it out of your way.

Amongst a set of sockets and a screw driver or two, you will also need a dremmel or drill, a set of pliers/vice grips/vice.....I used a pair of needle nose pliers.



Once you have that outta the way, stand on the drivers side and look down in at the side of your manifold, right around where the Throttle Body sits...you should see the DSI "Actuator" and a dangling cable w/clip.

See how that cheap crap broke? [:0]
You should see a dot at the top of the actuator, where the post once was....the clip snaps onto the actuator right there.

Here is a pic of the broken post...I popped this out of the clip on the end of the cable using a flathead screwdriver:


and this little gem will be it's replacement:

check that it is the same thickness on the post.

Now grab that screw with a pair of pliers/vice grips/vice and grind it down with a dremmel so that the head of the screw matches the same diameter and thickness of the posts head....go a little at a time and check to make sure it fits snug, not loosely, into the clip.

Here is my grind on the screw head...I also cut it shorter so it didnt hang out too far from the side of the actuator:


If you dont have a dremmel, you should really buy one..they rule. But you can put the screw into a drill chuck and use a file to "lathe" it down. [;)]


Almost there, can you feel the suspense?!

Aight, now you gotta go back to the actuator and pilot a hole for that screw...and make sure its not a bigger hole than the the screw with wide...duh. I used a dremmel cause it fit nicely in there and I didnt have to try to wiggle that actuator out of its home.

Lol, here's a picture of my hole...



I am sure you can see where this is going....screw + hole =



If you did it right, the screw should go in snug. You can reinforce it with some epoxy if you like. But now all you have to do is rock the actuator forward a little and snap the clip over the head of the screw and you are done! Drive your car around and enjoy the satisfying sound of your dsi switching over again. [thumb]

Hopefully this helps ease your frustrations while waiting for those parts to become available. Hell, you could also use this as a guide when you go to replace the part!

Happy motorin'
 
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#2 ·
Nice write-up! [thumb]

I was wondering what to expect whenever mine decides to break, I hadn't seen where it actually broke at before your pic. Now I won't worry so much about it, cause I do little "engineering upgrades" like that all the time.
 
#3 ·
glad I could help. I noticed a couple places where it was talked about, but never a pic.....I was kinda nervous at first until I took everything off and realized what I was up against. I damn near laughed at myself cause it was so "stupid simple"
 
#9 ·
Thanks! Mine has been broken so I have just disconnected the actuating motor from the wiring harness to spare burning it out. That in turn caused my engine light to come on which has been pissing me off for the past month. Not too mention the horrible gas mileage due to the manifold automatically springing to the larger intake.

I had been planning something exactly like this in my ghetto rigging mind for a while but havnt had a chance to really tear into the engine bay being in the military and all..time is a rarity.

Also pisses me off when the car first started making that noise which turned out to me the control motor trying to switch over to the smaller intakes non stop I took it to the ford dealership...which charged me 80 bucks to tell me that the Control Motor itself was broken and caused me to buy a new 150 dollar motor...which they refuse to let me return because it was a special order. In essence I wasted 230 dollars on a solution to a non existant problem. ****in morons.

PS. If anyone would like to buy a brand new Control Motor (not sure what the exact part name is) Ill gladly sell it to you for 100 dollars shipped.
 
#13 ·
Well tonight...due to the fact that I am on leave and at home with a bench grinder and tools at my convenience I went ahead and tackled the problem that I ignored for the past month. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I had forgotten what the thing drove like before this problem...man it idles smooth again...easier to get going from a stop and now you can FEEL the power again. And Im not sure but im willing to bet my little hour long ghetto rigging session made for an assebly that is stronger than it was before (WTF was going through fords minds anyways when they made that piece plastic?).

Oh and to clebrate I ordered a HIA SRI tonight...I cant wait!

Tell you what...im beginning to get more and more comfortable working on my car. Before this car the only thing that I had worked on was a 79 El Camino...yeah just a LIL bit of difference there. Lets just hope that I wont have to work on it that much in the near future!
 
#14 ·
No kidding, excellent job on that write up!! Mine hasn't broken yet thankfully .... YET being the operative word here LOL but when it does, I will know what to do, thanks!
 
#17 ·
FORDSVTPARTS said:
That is about 99% the same thing I did to mine, It works great,

I used a machine screw instead of a wood screw and I filled the hole with epoxy before screwing in the new stud to add a little extra strength.

Nice pics BTW.

Yes, thanks for that idea...your post is where I got this mod from. I couldnt find it to give proper credit to you, sorry...just wanted to add pics, since no one had any anywhere. But this works awesome and I swear its stronger than the original piece.

Mind you, I got a new part and they are still plastic...so I am leaving this in and am considering moddin' the new part as well.
 
#18 ·
..:: sleestak ::.. said:
Yes, thanks for that idea...your post is where I got this mod from. I couldnt find it to give proper credit to you, sorry...just wanted to add pics, since no one had any anywhere. But this works awesome and I swear its stronger than the original piece.

Mind you, I got a new part and they are still plastic...so I am leaving this in and am considering moddin' the new part as well.
Thanks for the recognition, I actually just assumed that someone else came up with the same idea.

Mine has been in for about 4-5 months now with no sign of failure, I am quite sure that this mod is far stronger than the oem part.
 
#21 ·
Just reading through this in preparation for when mine decided to snap - got a quick question. Do you all know if that plastic piece the stud breaks off of is removable? Or, does the repair have to be done right down in the engine bay? The pics sleestak posted in the begining are great, just not quite close up enough for me to see what holds the piece onto the intake.... Just curious - seems like the repair would be easier if you could remove the piece and work on it off the car.
 
#22 · (Edited)
onebluemcm said:
Just reading through this in preparation for when mine decided to snap - got a quick question. Do you all know if that plastic piece the stud breaks off of is removable? Or, does the repair have to be done right down in the engine bay? The pics sleestak posted in the begining are great, just not quite close up enough for me to see what holds the piece onto the intake.... Just curious - seems like the repair would be easier if you could remove the piece and work on it off the car.
It comes right off, There are OEM replacements for these now.

I am not an authorized vendor here but I do have them, PM me.

If you are going to fix yours it is much easier to take it off to repair it. there is a small retainer that is a one time use part unless you are very careful. The new lever comes with two new retainers.
 
#23 ·
did the fix, but it's still broken

at 50k miles the plastic post broke and i heard the telltale noise of the dsi motor trying in vain to pull the switch to the smaller intake. i found this thread and performed the fix (great directions btw, thank you!) but when i cranked the car back up i heard the dsi motor try 3 or 4 times and then shut off, with the switch still all the way against the clockwise stop. with the clip disconnected from the new post i made, i can see the cable moving as the motor tries to pull the switch, so i think the motor is still good. i also disconnected the battery in case the computer was thinking the intake was in one position after the failure and needed to be reset. same results after reconnecting the battery. if the motor is working enough to pull the cable with no resistance, why wont it pull when i reconnect it to my new post? any ideas??
 
#24 ·
problem solved, motor broke too

so i went ahead and pulled the actuator motor to troubleshoot...opened it up, and sure enough, the other end of the cable goes into a plastic piece too inside the actuator, and that had broken as well. points of interest: the actuator motor is very easy to get to if you just pop out the drivers side headlight. the motor is $150 from a dealer, and $80 from FORDSVTPARTS on this forum, who btw was very helpful....thanks!!

until i get the new motor, i've rigged a piece of the remaining cable to pull the dsi switch all the way forward, which is the position i understand it should be in for under 5000rpm operation (long runners). is this a good thing to do or should i just leave it alone and let the computer try to readjust?
 
#26 ·
Re: problem solved, motor broke too

burner said:
so i went ahead and pulled the actuator motor to troubleshoot...opened it up, and sure enough, the other end of the cable goes into a plastic piece too inside the actuator, and that had broken as well. points of interest: the actuator motor is very easy to get to if you just pop out the drivers side headlight. the motor is $150 from a dealer, and $80 from FORDSVTPARTS on this forum, who btw was very helpful....thanks!!

until i get the new motor, i've rigged a piece of the remaining cable to pull the dsi switch all the way forward, which is the position i understand it should be in for under 5000rpm operation (long runners). is this a good thing to do or should i just leave it alone and let the computer try to readjust?
Two notes I thought I would add:

1) How incredibly *stupid* of SVT to design this so that it is energized (pulling) 99% of the time the car is running...

2) There is at least one more mode of failure. Mine operates - the motor pulls the cable which moves the manifold, but the circuit inside the actuator does not give position feedback signal to the ECM, and it therfore turns on the check engine light every time you rev it.

That makes the following failures that I've heard of:
* Pin on manifold lever broken
* Clip on manifold end of cable broken
* Clip for cable inside the actuator broken
* Feedback pot inside actuator (or whatever it uses) bad
 
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