Hi guys I'm back again now with ignition issues. I've recently replaced the alternator, battery, coil, spark plug wires, selonoid, headlight switch, ignition switch and lock. Now I have a few questions, First off i cannot start the truck from inside the cab, i have to jump it with a screwdriver off the selonoid. Next my battery doesn't seem to be holding charge and when i hook up jumper cables to it the engine automatically starts to turn over. I dont know if when i replaced the ignition switch if i placed the right wires is the right places as the wiring on the truck is ***** and i have to idividually attach each wire to its post. Behind the igition switch i have 2 red, a thick yellow one, a thick black one, and a thinner brown one. I attched them to where i thought the old ones came off at but i dont think its right. Next is while the truck is running if i go to turn on the headlights they dont turn on and it shuts the entire truck off. I've been screwing with this truck for about a month while going to school and need it as a daily driver. any help?

 

Disconnect the wire running to the 'S' post on the solenoid. With the key held in START, this wire should have 12 volts. If not, there is a problem with the ignition switch, or the wiring in and out of the switch.

The only way it would make sense for the truck to turn over while being jumped is if the battery was already drained but the ignition switch stuck on. You probably have hot-at-all-times wiring stuck to the starting circuit which is draining your battery.

The ignition switch is obviously miswired. Refer to the bottom-right of this page from the 1973 wiring diagram: http://fordification.net/tech/images...aster_3of8.jpg

 

Which wire is that? Should be the Thick yellow one?

I do not know how to read this Nor where on the ingition switch i would plug each wire to, also my ignition switch has 6 prongs instead of five and they dont match up with the diagram show with the link

 

I can't speculate how it's actually hooked up on your side. This is just a guess as to what's going on; my point is that it sounds like the ignition switch wiring needs to be looked at.

That's the factory Ford diagram. Are you sure the ignition switch is the correct replacement? Later-model ignition switches are different. Does your switch at least have letters stamped next to each terminal?

 

No it only has one "J" stamped next to the bottommost middle one.

 

Here is the back of what the correct 1973 ignition switch looks like:



The wiring diagram I sent you shows what colors go to which position of the factory connector that would have gone to the ignition switch. If you hold the ignition switch like it's shown in the picture above, then rotate it 90 degrees counter-clockwise and make the terminals face you, the terminals on your switch will be a mirror image of the terminals in the diagram. This will tell you where to connect your leftover wires if the original connector is gone.

As a sanity check, you can map the continuity of the terminals based on the position of the key in the switch and make sure the wire colors that should get connected in each position do indeed get connected, using the ignition switch schematic in the right-hand middle of the figure. In other words:

START: YELLOW is shorted to RED with BLUE stripe, PURPLE with WHITE stripe is shorted to the switch body (ground).

RUN: YELLOW is shorted to RED with GREEN stripe and BLACK with GREEN stripe.

OFF: YELLOW is connected to nothing, and no terminal should have continuity with the switch body.

ACCY: YELLOW is shorted to BLACK with GREEN stripe.

NOTE: The wires going into the ignition switch carry heavy current and are very closely spaced. I highly recommend trying to find an original connector to prevent the terminals from shorting.