Recently acquired an E250 5.4 liter. Didn't look very close when I bought it, and have discovered some oddball wiring. Parking lights didn't work (I fixed that), backup lights don't come on when you put it in reverse, and blower motor doesn't work. Some wiring has been hacked: somebody took a couple of wires and stuck them into fuse receptacles on the fuse panel, and ran the wires up into the dash to run who knows what.
I read the blower motor thread in the "1968 - present full size vans" forum, but that's focused mostly on mechanical things, and I need to do electrical troubleshooting first. Where can I get more information on the electrical system? A diagram of the fuse panel that shows what all the fuses control would be nice. Where the motor blower relay is. How the backup lights are wired.
If this thread is to be focused on just one question, it would be the backup lights. I have all summer to fix the blower.
Thanks in advance.

 

You can try Autozone to see what they have, but their diagrams for the 97 year are usually not very good. For curiosity, if you do not get what you need plugging in your 97, plug in a 2000. I am not sure, but sometimes the vans lagged way behind in updates through the years, and the later diagrams are better on their site. Just register, plug in your van, and then go to repair info, repair guides, and the older diagrams are located under chassis electrical. The later diagrams have their own link called wiring diagrams.

The back-up lights are usually controlled by a switch on the side of the tranny where the lever goes in. They run out of the fuse box, down to the switch, and then out of the switch to the rear lights along the frame rail.

For the blower, the first thing I would do is unplug it, and hot wire it to the battery, to make sure the motor is good. They usually feed the hot from the fuse to the motor all the time, and then the ground goes back to the dash switch which selects the different speeds. It selects the speeds by putting the ground of the motor on different resistors.

 

Franklin2, thanks for the response.
From your description of the backup lights I should be able to trace the wires and get it working.
I registered at Autozone and took a look around the site too.
I am going to work on the truck after the cold, damp weather in our part of Vermont goes away. Weather forecast says we should have some sun on Memorial Day. Yay!

 

Ford used to use pink or pink/black for the back-up lights.

 

Ok, I've dealt with the things listed in the original post. Replaced the missing fuse for the backup lamps, and jumpered the blower switch to run on full, at least until I can get around to working on the resistor.
I've noticed another funny electrical thing. When I turn on the hazards, I have to push the turn signal lever to the right in order for the right front lamp to work. If I leave the turn signal lever centered, the right front lamp fails to flash along with the rest of the hazards. Surely this can't be a design feature. Do all the econolines do this, or is this just funny gremlin in my particular van?

 

Your turnsignal switch is probably defective.