Finally made time to fix this pesky little problem. I will echo the scores of X and Super Duty owners who have said repeatedly over the years to FIX this BEFORE the wires get chaffed enough to short... I didn't listen even though I knew about this when I bought the X and waited for it to fail .

The problem:

The wires for OD switch travel thru the shift lever and after exiting they cross over the top of the column and plug into the wiring harness. Since these wires need to allow the shifter to move as well as the steering wheel to tilt - the wires also move when these things are moved. As the wires move back and forth this 1/4", they eventually wear thru the insulation and expose the wires. Initially, my OD lite would come on for no reason and eventually I was blowing fuses when shifting or using OD switch. As far as I can tell, THIS WILL HAPPEN TO EVERY ONE OF THESE TRUCKS - eventually. Seriously, its an EASY fix if ya do it NOW - it takes 20min, a phillips screwdriver and some tape!

First, remove the (3) screws that hold the plastic trim around shifter. Unscrew the tilt steering lever and remove lower plastic piece. With ignition in 'on' position, press the little shiny ball on the bottom of key cylinder and remove the cylinder.


Now you can slip the upper plastic over the shift lever and get it out of the way.


Since I'm a dum redneck and waited until I had a problem, mine was worn completely thru one of the wires. I was trying to strip it back and repair it in place and pulled the other 2 wires apart where they were crimped at the hold-down thingy attached to this black trim piece.


If I was smarter, I would have just unplugged the wire from harness and removed the pin in my hand and slipped the shifter lever, wire and black thing off so I could take the whole thing out where I could get to it... Don't try to slide that black piece off the shifter, its too big and will tear. This one was already torn and fugly - anyone got a part # for it?? I'd like to replace this one.

 

With parts in hand, I sat down at the workbench and soldered the wires back together and covered them in shrink tubing.


This is a 2nd small chaffed area, I put enough shrink tubing over all the wires to cover this area as well.


To finish the repair, I put shrink tubing over the the whole thing and put it back in the truck!!


While I was in there screwing around, I found the black w/pink stripe wire that triggers the 'key in ignition' chime. I just unplugged the thing from the lock cylinder and taped it up!! NO MORE CHIME every time I open the door with the keys in. WOOOHOOO! All other chimes still work. I just taped up the connector thingy. I'm not sure why I was too much of a weenie to just cut the thing off and put a piece of shrink tubing over the end of the wire...

 

Nice work my friend.

 

Great write up Jason!

 

Great write up with reps sent. Mine broke at the bottom of the shifter stem where the wires exit through the white nylon sleeve. I had to fully disassemble the shifter and fish new wire because there wasn't enough sticking out to reconnect.

Gread advice to service it before it breaks. It is a VERY easy item to check and very annoying when it goes bad.

 

Thanks guys, it really was easy. It would've been waay easier to fix it BEFORE it failed though!

 

Maybe we'll make you the official OD wire fixer at all the GTG's...lol

 

I still had a lot of that factory grease around my wire when I pre-fixed mine so I greased it up good so the tape slides easy.

 

Just put this on my fix list for the weekend along with reservoir tank replacement, serpentine belt replacement and radiator hose replacement. I'm glad you said it's going to happen if you don't fix it because being a hardheaded redneck I have to hear it ten times before I'll do it. Reps your way!!!

 

Glad i found your post. Ive been having problems with blowing fuses for a year now. Found this forum a month ago and is amazing at all the same problems i have as everyone else. I found my worn wires right where you said they would be. took off the shifter solder wires together and works great. Thank you very much for the write up. Awesome to fix. Very easy

 

I'm replacing the Shifter Boot in my '97 Aerostar which has torn, and found this How-To searching online which is very similar to what I'm dealing with.

by the way: the part number for the Shifter Boot (the black vinyl "thing") is XL3Z-3D677-AAB just in case you are still waiting to replace the torn Shifter Boot.

the difference is that my OD wire harness runs down the steering column to I don't know where, still haven't found where it plugs to, and I am not going to undo the steering column to find out.

I'm thinking of cutting the darned harness and then soldering the wires after I slide the new Boot into the shifter arm and wire harness. What a hassle! Or maybe try to find a small 3-wire plug with male and female ends to make it easier in the future to remove the shifter arm and OD wire harness. why didn't Ford think of this?

I am also saving the old torn Shifter Boot Frame to make a new boot out of a different material that does not tear, maybe leather, but definitely with more material, since the factory part has less material than it needs to have in order to move and stretch properly. Thumbs down to Ford on the design of this part, it appears that every Ford truck has the problem of the torn Shifter Boot.

 

I wanted to let you know thanks for the post! I taped the wire harness of the shifter and ran the harness under the shifter and then clipped it back and wanted to know if I did wright?

 

I thought I'd give this a bump since I've had (2) friends call me from the side of the road in the last week with this problem!

Every one of these trucks is prone to have this problem - fix yours BEFORE it fails!!!!!!!!

The key-in-ignition chime fix is a BONUS!

Which one of these is the right part for the boot thingy???????????
http://www.tousleyfordparts.com/part...component=Seal

 

On my to do list,
Again, Thanks SkySkijason

 

Just fixed mine thanks to this post! My wires were broke in half so it took a lil while to repair but I now have my od cancel switch back.