Not Cranking at all Help Pete Toombs

[TIngersoll]

1990 W250 4wd 5spd

The truck stalled tonight plowing in "lake effect" snow storm and I was 1/2 in the state Rd. tried to restart and no cranking no sounds at all. Plow still lifts and lights are bright no drop in brightness during plow movement. So I yanked it out of the road with a unregistered 6 cyl 4wd ford gasser. Man was I lucky, white-out conditions. So what can I do? I'm gonna need to plow for sure tomorrow. Is there a fusible link somewhere. Is the switch rod under the column bent like some threads I read about? I have the Non-tilt column. Looking for some ideas for tomorrow cause it was like working in a blizzard outside and there wasn't a whole lot I could do safely in that weather. Thanks Tim

 

[TIngersoll]

OK Today I dropped the steering column and took out the switch. The reason I did this is because I got it to run by jumping the Injection Pump, and I got it to crank with the connector near the + terminal of the battery by unplugging it and jumping it off the battery. The power was going to the switch but not coming back out. Make sense? So 4 part stores later and I can have one by 3:00 pm today. I'll let everyone know if I fixed it with a correct diagnosis. Sure would be nice to have wiring diagrams. :-laf

 

[TIngersoll]

OK That didn't fix it. There is a relay type box on the side of the driverside fenderwell. I traced the brown wire from the plug with the red & brown wire that I was able to get cranking from at the + terminal of the battery. WE unplugged it from the relay and jumped the wires brown and red at the plug, wallah cranking. we jumped the yellow wire with the red wallah cranking. The yellow must be the clutch safety switch wire, so we think we found the problem again. Oo. This part is $88 bucks if the parts guy was right which he had zero confidence he was right. He said he couldn't find a starter relay, but he thought we knew what we were talking about. (315)376-8177 Should I move this post to 911 no one seems to be assisting. Thanks Tim

 

[Simplysmn]

To be able to plow with it I would just put a switch in the system to start it till you can get it fixed right should hold up for you .

 

[PToombs]

Tim, some of us sleep at nite and work during the day! I hope that relay isn't $88 at NAPA. The yellow is the power from the ignition switch, brown w/ yellow stripe goes to clutch switch or neutral safety switch in auto trans. The brown/ yellow also goes to the pcm, for something.

Check power on the yellow. If good, ground the brown/ yellow and try the switch. If it works, bad clutch switch or wire, if not, bad relay.

Hope this helps Tim!

 

[TIngersoll]

Hi Pete,

I know some of us work round the clock and sleep where we land. We pretty much figured it out by the process of elimination method. Then bought a subscription to NO-Data for $14. 95 and it actually had some data. :-laf So it looks like a Starter Rely for $17. 00 at Federated. NAPA is way out to lunch on that parts price. And they couldn't find an application for a Starter Relay anyway. Used the BHA Snow Blower today instead of the CTD, boy are my guns pumped. The shop is full of 440 and 340 Mod sleds and a couple of RV's right now. Races this Saturday at AIS check it out Home

Can't wait to get my copy this quarter to see your truck.

Thanks for the help.

Tim

 

[PToombs]

Tim, you should buy a FSM. $99 at Geno's Garage, or e-bay. I was just looking at mine about 5:00 for a friend of mine wiring his ford conversion. I knew what you were looking at without looking myself! The one I have is a '93, and that part of the wiring is the same. I know other stuff is different because of the PCM.

The BHA is Big Honkin' A**ed blower? :-laf I'd love to see the races, but we gotta get taxes done on saturday. :{

It's nice to see I'm not the only one who hasn't seen the mag!

See ya!

pete

 

[TIngersoll]

It's worse than we thought. We have a dead short somewhere. No power to anything but the blower motor. We found a pink or orange wire it's rusty looking color in the engine bay. Pink with black stripe under the dash. In the engine bay the harness is on the driver side fenderwell that'w where we found the very stretchy wire. It turns out it's a 20gauge fusible link. It also appears to be the main power feed but since I can't get a specific wiring diagram from no-data we are just tracing right now. We are also confused as to why the blower motor for heat and defrosting the windshield works but nothing else. Dash lights, stereo nothing---- but the head lights parking lights and plow work fine. (315) 376-8177 This truck is currently still down and out. WTH Pete

 

[PToombs]

Tim, looked at my schematic. It says 18 g. It runs underhood lamp, glovebox lite, map lite, dome lite, cargo lite, power mirrors, radio, ignition switch lite. Heated rear window also. My scanner doesn't work, or I'd scan it in for you.

The blower is on a different fusible link.

Maybe check for a chafed wire near the steering column. I sorta remember that from here someplace.

Sorry I'm not more help!

 

[LMcCary]

Pete

Sounds like you have a battery feed wire that is dead to the Ign. Sw. According to Chilton, the batt. wire starts from the bat. as black, turns red, then black leading to a fuse link, turning red again, before going thru the firewall and to the ign. sw. Check the fuse link by gently pulling on it If the fuse link is blown, (it will stretch like a rubber band)or back probing it with a test light to see if you have power to and thru it. If you have power thru it, check the juction block at the firewall for a corroded pin. Then move thru to the inside and check power to the ign. sw. The old dodges were bad about corroding at the junction block, causing a loss of power.

LMcCary

 

[TIngersoll]

Ok 18 Gauge because that's what I bought to fix it. There was no 20 gauge at NAPA or Federated and that's what it said on it. So the fusible link stretched like a rubber band. Once we dove in and tore open the loom and started tracing power wires toward the fire wall it showed itself. But that didn't fix the problem that's when we realized something blew that good. We made a quick jumper and tried to find where the short was. Every time we touched the battery and the other side of the fusible link, SMOKE came out. I pulled a plug on the fire wall passenger side tried again, smoke came out. Terry says what's this thing by the intake, I think and say must be the heater grid or something, 2 black heavy gauge wires for carrying some current right to the intake side of the motor. We loosen them retighten and smoke comes out. So now down on the lower part of the motor there is the glass fuel site jar I call it and there is a white wire, (no it's road salt on a black dangling wire which is part of a pair of wires near that glass jar and another ugly one on the back side and there's a huge connector right above this mess next to the valve covers and we unplug that monster plug is back in do the FORD wiggle test on the whole mess touch the jumper back to the battery and the other side of the blown fusible link and the wipers start to move and inside the truck the 4 wheel drive picture is lit and the stereo comes on . We don't know what we did and we know it's not fixed but it's working right now with a new 18 gauge fusible link soldered in place. Also it gets better, I back out of the garage to finally plow and the darn plow won't go down it does back and forth goes up once and can't go higher. Took another 1/2 hour to get it working too. It had to be air locked or something, we took out the bleeder until the plow fell on the floor. Watch your toes if you try this at home. It did and we refilled it and wallah it worked properly again too. Side note: we gave back all of the money on a Remote Starter job today because the Tech line couldn't figure out why it couldn't learn the idle speed from the tach signal. We might be done doing those anymore. 2 snow blowers ran all day today and I still plowed out the Motorsport and Graphics place at 7:00pm after everyone went home. The wifes Ford Van failed to start after she got to work today. It started at 6:30 tonight. She got fuel yesterday. I hope tomorrow goes a little bit smoother!!

 

[PToombs]

WOW Tim! Feel better after getting that out? :-laf

I haven't seen a glass jar on these trucks, I assume you mean the fuel filter? The 2 wires go in the bottom? Water in fuel sensor. I don't have a clue what big plug you're talking about. Maybe a picture?

If you go up to Carthage and sabotage their loader, I'll stop in as I go by.

I hope tomorrow goes better for you!

pete