Key switch ... I had issues, but on an older truck

Sorry for all the problems you are having. I still have my 1998 F-150 that I bought new. It is all truck, a 6 cylinder, 4+over dive on the floor, radio, windshield wipers, A/C and heater, no carpeting, and hand cranks on the windows, with lovely vinyl and cloth seats. It does not even pretend to be fancy. LOL

Still the thing cranks and runs like new and I think it is trying to out live me. I also inherited a 1997 Silverado a few years back, that is loaded and drives like a car so I now have two vehicles, but only the F-150 drives and acts like a truck. I cannot believe how little maintenance it has required over the years. I think I paid $13,500 cash for it, and other than oil, tires, filters, and gas, I may have spent $900 on maintenance repairs it over the years. The A/C still cools like new and it has had no work at all. Of course I don’t abuse it and I do change the oil, gas filters, and air filters regularly

People can make fun of Ford vehicles all they want, but if they are all as good as my 1998 F-150 I will take a Ford any day.

I hope you finally have yours back running like it should.

I wish he had not bought a new truck yet. A previous post reminded me of an interesting problem long ago that fits.

The guy had too many keys on his keyring. As he bounced down the road it pulled more and more on his ignition switch until the electrical connection was iffy. He took all the other stuff off his keyring and all problems went away.

Sorry I am late.

I hear ya! We had a '97 Dodge minivan and put over 230K miles on that 165 hp v6 and darned if it didn't still run great and sound smooth when we finally gave up on it - original trans too! The electronics went south and for the last year or so that we had it, it would just decide to play dead and not start for a while. Maybe it would start the next day - maybe not. We loved the van, but once it got 'unreliable' and 'unfixable' we donated it to the Salvation Army.

We've had a number of Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth products over the years and the drivetrains were always solid! It's all the other stuff that makes the vehicle work that doesn't hold up.

__________________
-H
John 3:16

OP, out of curiosity. This may be way out of left field but lets see here. You say ur truck in a 98. If my memory serves me correctly, 98 was a year that ford equipped the F-150 with a transponder encoded key. Which means that if a normal key is put in the truck, it would do one of 2 things. #1 It would turn over but never engage the fuel pump (truck doesnt crank). #2 It wouldnt even turn the starter over (no noise, no nothing, no crank).

Now I have seen these transponders in the keys as well as the actual computer in the truck go bad over time. And either of them starts going back, u will swear u have gremlins running around somewhere under the hood.

So my question to you is. Does this happen with a certain key that you have. Or has it happened before with an extra key (such as ur wifes key) or maybe another spare key u have.

Modern sound systems draw a very small standby current in order to store all the presets and other settings.
this always on portion of the stereo can flip out in some cases and become a high current drain problem. Ive both had, and witnessed this issue before.

What folks do NOT know and I think the shops might be afraid to talk about is that your vehicles ECU (AKA brain box) has a very similar circuit to facilitate the storage of trouble codes and engine tune settings. Newer variants store even more data but thats beside the point ... While these units are considered critical, and thus, built to a higher price point (hopefully) they don't flake out as often. However, being the same basic circuit, just with better parts, is still prone to the same issue, though not as common as in sound systems.

That would be where I looked next.

__________________
it just needs more voltage

My new 78 Dodge Saint Regis had serious window control problems. After working the front window the rear windows would not work
First the dealership gave it sunshine therapy.
Eventually they replaced both back door window motors.

Eventually I removed the front drivers side door panel and some assembly line worker had run the wiring harness inside the door with the main window gear. Try to lower front window and the window gear would (grind up) short-out the wires to rear windows.
I used electrical tape and then rerouted the harness to between door and side panel and all was fine.

I ran over something one night last fall and blew out both right side tires (BLEW OUT) I made to the closed Ford store and left it---went back the next day to get the car and a salesman I know greeted me with---"If you evr have this problem again, call me, day or night, I have several new ones that have air in all four tires.
Glad you jacked the old one up and drove a new one under it.
Blessings

__________________
TEXAS, by GOD

Amen, I had a 79 F100 that was giving me fits turning over slow. Rplaced the battery checked the connections. Everything looked good. I don't know why but I skinned back the insulation on the one cable and found the copper green for about a foot. Externally it looked like new.

Three different times in my life I was in a car that totaly lost their brakes. More excitement than anyone could wish for! The first time I was with dad in a 1953 nash statesman. I think a plug blew out of the brake fluid resivoir. Another time I was rideing with my boss in I think, a 1959 chev. He yelled " I got no brakes " as we were headed down a hill with a village at the bottom. We ran a stop sign and lost the momentum going up the hill on the other side!
Yet a third time, I was towing my 1963 oldsmobile with about a 1961 1/2 ton chev truck somewhere back east in the appliachian or smokey mountains. My brakes heated up, I was going too fast to be able to downshift! I considered bailing out but hung with it. There too was again a village at the bottom of the valley that I flew through, up the other side and come to a halt.
Another time back in 1964 I was pulling a travil trailer with my companys chev truck. I was right near the california/oregon border on what is now I-5. I started down the steep new freeway and for some reason I lost control. That trailer was whipping me all over back and forth across at least 3 lanes of freeway that is right there. I had to correct maybe what seemed like 6 times! I was really shook when I stopped. I checked my trailer and the pickup load and had a real mess! Everything in every drawer and closet was on the floor. I dont know what caused the trailer to start whipping but interesting, about 20 years after that my friend that was a captain of mine on my job was on vacation with his family driveing a new blazer with a travel trailer and had the same thing happen on the same exact spot! He wasnt as lucky as me and rolled both!

Glove compartment light?

My old Chevy PU would kill batteries if it sat for a few days. One night I happened to catch a glance at something weird - My truck was *glowing* - It was either the glove box light or the under hood light (it was a L O N G time ago). Removed bulb - Problem solved

We should have a new thread for *Wild Rides* - Just sayin'

__________________
In dog years I'm dead.

Good deal - a zombie truck thread !

Got rid of the late 80's GMC 454 Suburban after the 6th transmission, and got a 2001 7.3L Power Stroke F250 for towing the trailer. No problems ever after.

On the heavy key chain issue, after my wife killed 3 $180 ignition switches in her Alfa spider, it has it's own key fob with only the Alfa key on it !

Not this old guy, not if they were the only truck offered!

The only way GM will get a dime from me is through the fed's taking it in taxes.

__________________
GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Just replaced the starter on our '07 F150 6cyl.

Have had Ford shop trucks for 40 or so years....along with working on countless high milage cars.So was fairly suprised when the above starter came boxed with 10 inch or so "pigtail"....IOWs,a short length of cable.It said in the instructions to replace this length of cable,right at the starter.Along with some wording about the stock wire causing problems?


I can't say too much about original starter.100k miles and huge amts of start..****n vehicle 10 minutes(picking up/moving loads)...turn off...rinse,repeat.But it was acting very similar to your description.In retrospect,I'd have replaced that 10" of starter cable first.....being the cheap ***.But the starter was easy-peasy and did it here at the shop(vs side of the rd).

Good luck.

When I started this thread several years ago I was in the midst of the electrical Gremlin blues with my old 98 F-150. As several suggested and my bride demanded, I ended up driving a new to me 2006 with the 5.4. Buying a certified "Pre Owned" has been a very happy experience for me with no rude surprises.

For what it is worth more than 3.5 years and 40K+ miles (half of which are towing), later the 2006 is still running like a champ. Have yet to spend dime one on any thing other than brakes, shocks, tires and fluid changes. It tows my 5K# trailer like a dream. I admit to driving very conservatively and my reward is the remarkable mileage I get, 16 to 17 around town, 19.5 out on the highway at 65 and towing averages 12.5 (I do use a wind deflector on the rear of the Leer Shell which helps to the tune of 1.5 to 2.0 additional towing mpg).

Here is a recent shot but I need to note that the wind deflector is way too steep in this pic. They need to be aligned with the leading edge of the top of the trailer for maximum efficiency:

nah .. the issue is about something being drained ... so its more of a vampire truck thread....
hey wait a minute ... we have our zombie guns covered .... guess we have to head to the LGS for some vamp blasters.

__________________
it just needs more voltage

In my experience as a automotive/diesel tech, I have learned when I receive a repair order and the basics check out and im still searching for the problem, I always call the customer to squeeze every detail out of them. Most of the time I find out there is more information on the problem than what got wrote on the ticket.

Maybe the truck is a woman (cough cough).

This is why I have grown to hate any car or truck with a computer, a module, or anything that needs to be plugged in to anything else. The more they modernize stuff, the easier it seems to blow up or something fails. Hopefully if all goes well this time next week I will be getting my 74 Ford F100 from the guy who rebuilt the motor. I added a set of headers and dual Thrush glass packs even though I did not hot rod the motor, I want the sound at least. I also have a set of new tires, shocks, brakes all the way around a flushed out gas tank and redone radiator and a few other goodies added. I think my total investment over the last two years including the $2000 on the truck, maybe $5000 with the motor rebuild being the chunk of the repairs. The guy told me yesterday driving it he can't believe how nice it rides and drives. It isn't the prettiest, not alot of rust but a couple dents and the paint is worn through in spots, but it will get up and go. It won't be a daily driver but it will be fun to drive every other day or so.

Here is is about a month or so with the motor almost done, a big old 390 V8.

__________________
Vaya con Dios

My first truck was an '82 F100 with the 300 cube inline 6 - loved that truck! I wish I had never gotten rid of it!

__________________
-H
John 3:16

Many of Ford"s later trucks had a positive battery cable terminal with two cables molded into one terminal , one cable runs to the starter the other to the fender mounted solenoid these connections can appear to be undamaged but lose continuity inside right where they join the lead terminal, the problem is usually intermittent. One good test is to connect jumper cable to battery positive terminal and the other end to the large terminal on starter then try to start with the key. This method is a quick check I started using after a neighbor diagnosed his own "starter problem and spent $150 for a starter that wouldn't start any better than the one he took off.

Might check the back of the Circuit Board behind the fuse box.
Look for discoloration where the circuits have deteriorated over 10 years. Good Luck

On board computers were the downfall of a true mechanic.

Now if you are having a problem they say, "The computer didn't throw any codes, therefore there is no problem".

Most of the dealerships 'Techs' these days are glorified part changers.

I rode one of my Harleys for 20,000 miles with an intermittent stumble at speed. Computer didn't throw a code, so there wan't anything wrong according to Harley.

It ended up being a broken fuel injector wire which was broken inside the insulator. Computer didn't throw a code but the wire was still broken.

You might have a similar problem w/your cables.

__________________
AKA: "Strange Tamer"

I'm glad that the 2006 has worked out well for you.

Electrical problems can be massive nightmares! I spent about 17 years as an aircraft electrician, and the number of problems that took repeated attempts to repair was almost too many to count!

Most of the guys I worked with (on the civilian side) did not like electrical problems and avoided them like the plague! I was hired by a small airline years ago just because I was an electrician.

A month ago, I purchased my first full size pickup, a 2013 Ford F-150 STX with the 5.0L V8. So far, I'm liking it!

Attached Images

2013 Ford F-150 STX.jpg (67.8 KB, 4 views)

__________________
Semper Fi

Your wife and both girlfriends with food for everyone. Don't forget the spare battery .

__________________
S&WHF 366

I wouldn't worry about that - With the wife and two girlfriends you can be sure that someone will bring extra batteries

__________________
In dog years I'm dead.

There have been some really fine suggestions; if all else fails get a cow bell and wire it to the trucks frame. The bell will ring as you are going down the road and scare all the gremlins out of the truck.

__________________
Carpriver.

Gee, Might check the original post date (2009) Truck was replaced.

__________________
Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Beware the zombie F-150.