F150CANADA

There are many things that can go wrong of course but here are a few common problems and their possible causes.

Mostly these will apply to F150's and Broncos with gas engines but a lot of them cross over to the heavier trucks as well.

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A couple of things to consider;

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Firstly - Ground connections.

These are one of the most overlooked maintenance issue on most trucks. Everybody checks for power, but without a good ground the circuit will be weak or incomplete. Having a good ground is just as important as having a good power connection. Because all the grounds are common to each other, it's possible that current will bypass a poor or broken ground connection and find a different path - but not always or not efficiently. The result can be baffling when you're trying to troubleshoot a problem; it can also cause things to burn out and leave you wondering why.

So going over all the grounds on the truck and making sure that they're shiny clean and tight is a very good preventive maintenance measure on a 20 year old truck.

The ground connection points are as follows;

Negative battery post to negative battery cable.

Negative battery cable to engine block.

Negative battery cable to frame (half way to engine).

Fender beside battery (2 wires)

Rad saddle in front of coolant bottle (2 wires)

Firewall (RH) to intake manifold

Taillight wiring to frame - left side, very last crossmember of frame

Cab to frame; clip-on RH front cab mount.

Rad saddle to frame; clip on, near center.

There are also 2 behind the kick panels on either side, but being inside the cab they rarely corrode like the other ones.

With that many grounds on the truck you would think Ford could have eliminated a few and saved an awful lot of money over hundreds of thousands of trucks; the fact they didn't eliminate any of them should tell you that every single one of them is important - especially when you consider how many of the systems in your truck are electronically controlled.

 

Secondly - Codes.

The computer controlled features on these trucks have an on board diagnostics program (OBD) to help you analyze many of the electronic issues that could arise. Not to use it to give you a more accurate idea of the nature of your problem is just asking for unnecessary cost and frustration.

So many people run around their trucks replacing expensive electronic parts based on the fact that someone's friend had a problem "just like yours and that's what worked for them". Hundreds of dollars and no luck later they finally check the codes and realize they weren't even looking at the right part of the system.

Reading the codes is not hard to do and neither is learning how to read them. The savings in both money and frustration is well worth it.

CHECK FOR CODES

 

Also remember with any electrical issue - Check The Fuses First. It is extremely exasperating to chase a problem all over the truck only to find that the problem is just a bad fuse. If a fuse continues to blow that would indicate a short in that circuit; but sometimes they just go - you replace them and never have a problem with it again. It happens.

There is a fusebox located inside the cab down below the headlight switch; there is also another box under the hood just behind the air cleaner with a lot more fuses and relays. Every fuse has 2 openings in it's face for testing. If you use a test light connected to a good ground and check for power at both openings you can determine (a) if power is getting to the fuse and (b) if power is getting through the fuse.

Some fuses have power all the time (hot at all times) and some only have power when the key is on.

 

Specialty Tools To Consider Purchasing.

Multimeter ; a basic one of these is sufficient. $20 should do it.

Fuel Pressure Tester ; this is about a $50 to $60 item in the quality you need for home use.

Test Light ; about $15 should get you a good quality one of these

LED Test Light ; this might never get used - it would be for checking for pulses to the distributor or injectors; a little more advanced

Code Reader ; 92 to 95 trucks would use an OBD1 reader - 96 and 97 trucks need an OBD2 version