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2002 F250 dash goes out and no start

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Z-man228 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello All. I am newly registered on the forum but have been a long time reader. This is going to belong winded but I am posting this in hopes that somebody else will avoid what I have been thru the last several months. My 2002 F250 Has 121k miles onit and has ran great up until about 6 months ago. One day while driving back from the Keys in a heavy rain and pulling my boat my dash went completely out(no gauges and warning lights on everywhere) taking theradio, windows and wipers with it. I shut the truck off and restarted it several times hoping it would fix itself and it finally did. This condition did not present itself again the whole way home or for several weeks after so I chalked it up to something getting wet and just blew it off. In the following months when I was driving, I would be on a rough road or hit a bump and the condition would re-appear. Hit another bump and it would go away(the truck never shut off, I just didn’t have any gauges or accessories). I started researching online and could not find anything that outlined exactly what my truck was doing. The problem continued to get worse and even started doing it on initial start i.e. I would put the key in , turn it to on and wait for the glow plug light to go off but it wouldn’t go off and I would have no dash,radio, wipers or windows. After a while I learned that if I sat with the key in the on position, after about 15 seconds the dash would come on and everything worked normally or at least until I hit a bump or something. Then I figured out that if it went off while driving I could lightly kick the panel under the column and it would come back on, then found out the same “kicking” method worked when initially trying to start it. I changed relays, fuses, cleaned electrical connections, cleaned the plugs on the back of the fuse panel, even changed out he ignition switch under the column (napa part) per a suggestion from a local mechanic that has worked on my truck before. Nothing worked and I was at my mechanical abilities end. I called the local Ford dlsp and they immediately said Gem modules were bad. I explained to them my “kicking trick” and that the Gem modules were nowhere near where I could kick it to make it go. I took it to the shop and after 1 ½ daysthey determined the fuse block was bad and replaced it. The condition has not presented itself again since then so I can only assume they were correct in replacing the fuse block. However, ………

A few days after getting the truck back I went to start it and got a total no start condition. The key was on, the dash was on and the glow plug light went out as it should indicating it was ok to start. I rolled the key forward and you could hear the starter engage the flywheel but it would not spin it over. I checked batteries and they were good. I pulled the starter and had it bench tested, it was good. Researched all over but could not find anything on why the starter would engage but not roll the engine over. After putting it all back together I went out and it started normally. At this point I thought maybe something was just loose and I fixed it . Next day it started fine so I went to work. Got ready to leave for lunch and same no start condition was back. I walked back Into my office , called my wife and told her she may have to come get me later but I would call her. Went out afterwork, truck started right up. This went on for about 3 weeks – sometimes it fired right up, sometimes the starter engaged the fly wheel but it would not roll it over. I was getting ready to take it back to the shop and I started thinking “what had changed?” The fuse block was new, the batteries are less than 6 months old and checked fine, Starter less than a year old and checked fine, Alternator less than 2 years old and checked fine??????? Then I remembered I changed out the ignition switch under the column but wondered how could that have anything to do with this problem. I went to start checking this out and put the key into the ignition- no start, so I took the two torx bolts out and dropped the switch. I pushed the lever forward and the truck started immediately. I did this 4 more times and it started every time but wasn’t starting with the key. Fortunately, I saved the OEM ignition switch and replaced the NAPA switch with the OEM. I then pushed the lever forward and the truck started immediately. Repeated it 4-5 more times and it started every time. Bolted it back up and used the key, truck started immediately and has every time for the last 4 days. The NAPA part and the OEM part look identical but obviously there was some difference that when I turned the key to start the truck the slide was not engaging the NAPA switch all the way pushing it far enough to make it start the truck. This was an intermittent problem that was getting worse daily until I changed the switch back to the OEM switch. I have never heard of or read about an issue like this on any of the forums I visited so figured I would share it on here and hope that nobody else goes thru 6 months of what I just went thru.
 
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#2 ·
Good Info, Welcome to the forum.
 
#5 ·
I had checked everything in the fuse panel replaced relays, fuses etc. The ignition switch has a huge Plug full of wires attached to it and it was in the area of my "kick the dash" fix. The switch was only around $30 So I thru $30 at it in hopes that may cure the problem.
 
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