Hey guys, new member. Just bought a 2002 F250 lariat V10 W/95k miles, all options. About 15 miles from the bank a pushed the OD button and nothing happened, pushed it a few more times and suddenly all the gauges died, which after searching the forums is the typical OD button cable issue (sheathing worn through, creates short when pressed). Unknown to me at the time I also lost my charging system and now the truck is broke down 30 miles from home.

I've checked about every single fuse under the dash including the ones that could potentially pop when this button is pressed. 45 is supposedly the goto fuse and unfortunately its not popped, even worse PO must have upsized the fuse to a 30A, as it sounds like its supposed to be a 10amp. If all the fuses are good what do I check next. I know the smell of burnt electronics and would have noticed it something really burned up, but I never noticed it.

Thank you for the help.

 

If F45 were replace with a 30A fuse, the idiot PO cause a wiring circuit to burn out from excessive current draw.

Just because the fuse isn't blown doesn't tell you where the new open circuit is at. You'll need to use a meter or test lamp to identify where the fault is at.

As a temporary measure, proceed as follows to get the truck home:

1. Charge the battery fully. You can usually get a few dozen miles out of a fully charged battery without a functional alternator if you use electrical power minimally.

2. Remove column shrouds and disconnect the offending harness.

3. You *might* be able to jumper power to the dead circuit, but it depends where the open circuit has actually occurred. You *must* disconnect the shorted harness first.

 

Thanks Project

Yea, I plan on going to the truck tonight and hooking up some jumper cables and charging the battery to get it home. I'll try jumping power over to the other circuit once I get the cable disconnected and see what happens. What direction do I go as far as troubleshooting the circuit?

 

Do you have a multimeter and know how to use it?

 

Yes sir, very much so. I plan on getting in there are soon as I get it home to see if I even have 12v at that fuse.

Wasn't able to get the truck home last night, been working 15 hour days...hopefully tomorrow.

 

Still haven't got the truck home yet. Put my tester on both sides of the fuse, I've got power on both sides. Where does the circuit go after that? if I knew what plug it went into in the back I could check that and if there is no power going out on the plug then I've got a burnt of trace on the circuit board in the fuse box.

 

Got the truck back. I'll be looking to see which connector it is on the fusebox to see if I've got power coming out of the fuse box or if i've burned up a trace on the circuit panel inside the fuse box. I *think* its a big 24Pin connector, and I'm looking for pin 20, i'm not 100% sure. Any help would be appreciated.

 

These three files should help. You've got the electrical schematic, the connector C270a layout, and the CJB connector layout.

Your target is circuit #640. Your symptoms indicate an open circuit between the load side of F45 and splice C271 as shown symbolically. Half-split the circuit to isolate.

If you need assistance, just ask.

 

If I'm reading this right I should be able to pull c270a (24pin connector) and check for voltage on pin 8 and check for power, if no power I've likely burned a trace or a soldering joint on the circuit board of the fuse. On the connector side it's a red and yellow wire, where would I find that splice Project and what does a splice look like on these things? I'm assuming it's not just a wire nut

 

Pulled the fuse box, no power on pin 8, I don't have a wire landed on pin 9. Looks like a bad fuse box. I removed the short, so could I piggy back a different circuit that only comes on with the key on to get the truck running enough to get it to a shop? Worst case is a properly sized fuse would pop, correct?

 

Thats how you can tell if the circuit is bad. If you put to big a fuse in the socket than the wire could get hot and start a fire. I hate when people do that. It's dangerous to do that. I have seen people wrap a fuse in foil because the fuse would blow out.

 

The diagrams are somewhat ambiguous, they only give the location of S271 as "Under dash, RH Side". Not much help there. Splices are usually soldered together, then heat-shrinked.

For a quick and dirty repair, use an inline fuse holder with a 1/4" spade terminal on one end, a 10A fuse inside it, and a crimp-on wire inline splice on the other. Plug the spade terminal into the HOT terminal of the F45 slot and then crimp-splice the other end of the fused jumper to the RD/YE wire that plugs into C270a-8

For a permanent, professional repair, solder/heatshrink splices from the RD/LG wire at C270C-4 to the RD/YE wire at C270a-8. Include a tag that details the bypass of the defective circuit and the fuse is not functioning as F45 just in case some other poor owner or technician needs to work on it somewhere down the road.

 

I really appreciate the help SHO. This is exactly what I was thinking about doing to get it running. I've been in contact with the original owner and hes a really cool guy who swears he knew nothing about this and he's actually willing to help with any costs to repair so I'm almost considering ponying up for a new fuse box so It can be done 100% right, know that there is a splice down there would drive me nuts I'll figure something out so I can get it running and start enjoying it. I've unplugged the button for the time being and i'm ordering up a new shifter.

 

I got her running this morning. Just used a piggyback fuse and a crimp splice connector. So its all still controlled the same way it was before but i've got a splice, which I hate. I'm working on getting a replacement fusebox for it, we'll see what happens. Thanks for the help guys.