I have no idea if the high speed works. I don't really want to try as i'm pretty sure there is a mouse nest in the blower. There is one i the glove compartment and the side vents so i'm guess there is one here also. Something i plan to tackle when i get this dang thing out of the garage.

 

Okay i'm back to suspecting the fuses. I went back out and the buzzer works now. I had swapped the the buzzer fuse and the turn signal fuse. I'm gonna go through a replace the fuses and see what happens. Also ended up killing the battery so i have to charge it again. Having no engine to run the alternator really sucks.

 

Yes, those look like relays, but you'd have one for the horn only if you have cruise control.

 

I suspect those relays were added by a previous owner, prolly for something like fog lights.

 

I suspect the same, can't say I've ever seen any like that in any junkyards nor in any of my
rewiring adventures.

 

My dad was the original owner, he ordered it. I swear i find new stuff out of him everyday about whats he did to this thing. I showed them to him and he didn't know what they were for. Probably was for those fog lights. I defiantly don't have cruise control this being a base model of course with nearly no options what so ever. Well i guess i'll just take em off then. They kinda look really odd.

 

It can affect radio reception yes. The factory antenna uses the hood as it's ground plane, with the strap missing, or not attached, radio reception can suffer. The ground strap was only installed on trucks with either the radio, or underhood lamp option, so if your truck didn't have either one of these options, and you add these options later, make sure you also add the ground strap.

 

Well there are other Factory relays as well, depending on options.

Dual Batteries: Accessory safety relay. This relay looks simular to a starter solenoid.

Trailer And/Or Camper lights relay. Marker Lamps Relay. Fog Lamps Relay. These look like a metal or plastic box with wires or a connector coming out of them, depending on the year.

Those relays pictured look aftermarket.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by 81-F-150-Explorer

It can affect radio reception yes. The factory antenna uses the hood as it's ground plane, with the strap missing, or not attached, radio reception can suffer.

I'm generally not one to argue too much out here - especially with guys whom I
idolize because their knowledge & resources are so much greater than my own -
but I've been working with computers & electronics for over 30 years and have
enough experience with it to feel sufficiently comfortable with it, so I guess I'm
gonna argue this point. I saw a bumper sticker some time ago, it said merely:

Question Authority

so maybe this could be categorized under that.

I have a REAL hard time buying this one, especially with today's electronics
(cripe, even the 80s had transistors). Not trying to say that Ford may never
have taught this (I really have no idea) or that there is no basis in historical
fact for it, just that it doesn't seem plausible given modern (post 1960s-70s)
technology. Besides, I can't understand how the antenna could NOT also use
the roof and floor and bed for these purposes (speaking AM radio reception
here although proximity to the antenna connection might have something to do
with it) nor can I understand how the hood isn't grounded via the bolts (although
I remember you saying something about non-conductive hinge pins or some
such).

Now, I guess it was possible once upon a time when car bodies were made
partially of wood and you maybe had an auxiliary hand crank down by the
bumper to start the engine and radios were near the size of a milk crate and
used vacuum tubes and had to warm up for 5 minutes before they worked, I
guess it might be possible if you had a vehicle like that and were located near
an electric power plant in the frozen tundra of the North Pole and the earth's
magnetic energy coincided with the sky's cloud cover and Venus was in a
proper alignment with Pluto as Haley's Comet passed by at 7:13 PM then
people meeting those conditions might therefore experience problems receiving
stations broadcasting in the 520-730 kHz range and therefore couldn't listen to
the Rudolph Valentino Show.

Outside of wild circumstances like that, I don't buy it.

Seriously, though, I can see how it might have once upon a time affected AM
radio reception but that's almost irrelevant today IMHO and, besides, it should still be
able to pick up SOMETHING even without an antenna connected. . I work with a guy
who used to fix these 70s-80s radios for Ford, I'll see if I can ask him about it.

 

It's really a mess, isn't it?

Just gets annoying.

But you'll get it!

 

I'm with CT on this one. I once had a AM/FM radio strapped to the dash of a truck, and had no antenea at all. AM recption sucked, but even then, I didn't bother with AM. FM, on the other hand, worked like a charm. Even in the outer fringes of a stations broadcast range.

 

There is nothing what so ever that could possible get to or reach the relays, they also look with the weather stripping that they were added latter. So i'm gonna take em. Thanks tho guys trying to help me identify them.

Good discussion. Honestly made no sense to me either why i wasn't getting anything. I plan of replacing it with something more modern. It isn't the stock radio its a after market two *** alpine unit put in a long time ago. I'd be damned if that one ground strap fixed it.


@wicked endings
Yup sure is a mess. After this i can't really think of anything that is that bad. I'd say overall being parked for 16 years its pretty good.

 

81-f-150-explorer is one of the industry experts in this group, he's got lots of experience and a
crap load of books so I'm sure what he says has got some basis in fact, and the wikipedia
entry would lend credibility to his/Ford's claim. I fail to see the need for ground straps between
the hood & body, though, I don't see how the hood isn't grounded through the bolts to the hinge
bolted to the firewall. I suspect it's Ford "what if"-ing 'til the cows come home.

Ground plane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Yes, I respect what he has to say, as almost everytime, without fail, he hits the nail on the head.
My truck came with neither a radio nor under hood light, so it doesn't have the ground strap. Since I haven't put a radio back in after the crappy sparkomatic quit 10 years ago, I honestly can't remember if it ever had any reception issues or not.
Perhaps someday I'll get around to putting another jukebox in. Kinda doubt it though, since I only have one vehicle that has a functioning stereo, and I seldom turn it on......

 

Now this sure is a interesting read. Makes sense. Reminds me of the dish portion of a satellite dish even know these are different types of waves. Same purpose.