So my 15 year old daughter and I go away for our annual father / daughter backpacking trip. After several day / night on the Old Loggers Path in north central PA we get back to the parking area drop our gear in the back of the truck. Hop in the truck, start it up, put it in gear, step on the gas and NOTHING. The truck will not move, the engine will not respond to me pressing on the gas pedal. It will only idle. Almost ALL my idiot lights on the dash are lit. I shut it off, get out my owners manual and start reading. I pull every fuse in the truck and they are all good. I check the fuel filter, the fuel filler cap, see if anything is stuck in the exhaust pipe, even check my windshield wiper fluid. Cannot find the problem. We are 6 miles from the hard road and we have no cell phone service. I start the truck up again hoping it would have fixed itself, obviously, no such luck.

So now I go into problem solving mode. I put the truck in 4wd lo and use the idle to get the truck to move. So we are now going down this rocky, bumpy, eroded forest road at 2 - 3 mph. However, whenever we get to a gully, rut, hill, log, rock, etc. the truck does not have enough power to get over it. I either have to push or use my come-along to get the truck moving again. If you have ever pushed or pulled a 7K rig, you know it is not fun nore easy. When I was pushing or pulling, my daughter "drove." This went on for 4 hours until we got to the hard road and found a homeowner that would let us use his landline since we still had no cell service. I call AAA and they send a rollback to get me. I am 175 miles from home. I would need to sell a kidney to pay for this tow bill.

While waiting for AAA, I go over the truck from top to bottom, front to back, side to side, inside and out and finally discover the problem.

Being a incredibly intelligent bunch of individuals in this group, let's see if anybody here comes up with the problem/solution.

 

TPS unplugged?

 

Nope..........

 

Floor mat?

 

the idle validation switch is not releasing. its in the same switch housing as your TPS. its all on the throttle pedal. If the computer doesn't see the IVS turn off, it won't recognize the the input from the TPS. some folks have had good luck with spraying contact cleaner into the switch and making it work again. Me, I have just had to replace the pedal assembly. "bout a 100 bones IF its not one of the adjustable pedals. My truck seems to go through one about once a yr. I've seen no difference between Ford OEM and NAPA except NAPA's are lifetime warranty and OEM 1 yr. being stranded in the back country is a bitch, first time mine died I was pulling 18K up a long, long 6% grade. Went for a downshift and -------nothing, nada. I'm slapping the throttle of the floor thinking WTF! Then Poof, it starts working again. of course by now I've lost all my momentum and boost. I now carry a spare. its a 10 minute fix.
edit: seems I missed the part where you got it fixed. did you have a rodent eat part of your wiring while you were away from the truck?
Barney

 

Winner, winner chicken dinner!!! Some kind of critter ate the wiring harness right inside the driver side wheel well. I had to splice about 12 wires back together and the truck ran fine. Now I need to get it fixed properly. I am hoping that it is modular enough that I can just replace that section.