code was showing for the knock and climbed under the truck and checked to see if it was pluged in grabed the wire and to my surpise the wire kept coming and so did a peice of the knock sensor, is this going to affect my truck badly?? worst case?? 97 f250 4.6 standard

 

Are you saying you found the knock sensor UNDER the truck?

 

no thats the only way to get to the wire is going up by the transmission

 

thats whats left

 

It depends on the engine load at any given time.
What is it and what does it do?
It is.... a pizo electric generator that is tuned and located to respond to combustion knock from advanced ignition timing, poor fuel, combustion chamber hot spots ,lean fuel conditions etc.
What dose it do? It retards the ignition timing to prevent possible piston damage. It retards the timing a good number of degrees until the condition subsides (the sensor no longer detects the signal).
While in retard, the engine power drops from the retarded timing.
What affects this is engine load from various conditions from lugging the motor to hauling/ towing heavy loads.
Without it connected and working you may hear the engine ping or knock at times.
These are almost always used on trucks due to the application.
Good luck.