They say I'm a new member, but I actually joined months back. They tell us to identify our vehicle and something about it. Here's the "scoop." I purchased new this 97 F350, CrewCab, auto tranny, 4x4 with a 7.3 back in 97. I had a dually conversion done on it. Was a great truck except tranny did not make it past 100k. I drove it 118,000 miles, and sold it when I replaced it with a 99. I just have bought the 97 back with 217,000 miles. Was sitting in the back yard of the fellow who bought it from me. Five years without being started. I traded a 99 burb to get it back. Put in two new batteries, and replaced a frozen starter, and cranked it. Took a few tries, but it fired and purrs like the great 7.3 should. Got me excited to get my hands on my old 7.3 again.

Here's my issues to be resolved at this point. (May be more along the way). The steering column was dangling, the ignition switch would energize the dash lights and accessories, but would not energize starter. It is not sending power to the starter solenoid. Solenoid energizes when I run a jumper from the battery to the solenoid. That's how I cranked it.

Truck had a viper alarm which worked fine in my original days, but now kept clicking off and on (siren was disconnected) so I thought that the "starter kill" might be keeping the starter from engaging. I'm not real "sabe" on alarms but I removed the alarm when I removed the steering column. In the alarm install, only one wire was actually cut to run through the alarm. ( I suppose it might have been the starter kill) I spliced it back together. All other wires were just "T"-ed into various operational wiring.

So now after disconnecting the 4-wire harness to the key ignition, I would think that I could at least find a "hot" wire in those 4 wires, jump it over to another to energize the accessories so I could run my window up again. But I can't find any combinations of wires that will do that.

Is there any "electrical wizrd" that can tell me the wiring path of my ignition wires? There are 4 wires running to the key ignition harness, and three wires connected to a switch farther down the steering column. Sorry for the "book" here, but now you have the story.

Thanks.
<!-- / message -->

 

Welcome to FTE.

Congrats on getting your truck back. I'm moving your thread to the 1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks forum which also covers your 1997 F-350. Since your engine isn't the problem, this forum and its members will be the best folks to help you come up with a solution to your issue.

 

Thanks, I think I just figured that out and pasted over in that forum also. I had a hard time find the spot for the 97 It now shows up twice. I modified a few things on the new post. Appreciate the help.