Hey ya'll...I've begun working on this 93 f-150 trying to customize to my liking...its my first build so to speak,,,so here is my issue..
First of all, its a 1993 F-150 XLT reg. cab 4x4 with a 5.0 302 efi, nothing special but it runs and drives exceptionally well for its age...
So my problem is as follows: sometimes when I shift into reverse, like backing into a parking space, the truck shuts off....I pop the hood,
shake the battery and it starts right up and I continue on my way....I knew I'd have to deal with this minor inconvenience eventually but the other day
when it happened I could not get it to start back up so I removed the battery and carried it to my garage and tested it...battery is good and has a full charge so
while re-installing the battery I kind of screwed up by hooking up the ground terminal first and then positive...well the terminals and wires were so messed up that it would
take 5 minutes to get the terminals tight, however, the sparks led to the starter solenoid or relay, whatever is mounted to the fender and the battery connects to with a two prong red adapter...Well when the solenoid/relay started sparking it led to frying a brake controller that was wired to the connection on top with the 'S' I'm guessing the starter connection point...so after all this, I removed the brake controller which was never used anyway and bought a new solenoid/relay whatever with a lifetime guarantee..also got some new terminals to hook up the battery better...Any way the new solenoid looks identical except for having another connection on the bottom marked 'I', I'm guessing ignition...So the truck has two gray wires with eyelets on the end that i hooked to each side of the solenoid and then the red two prong positive cable from the battery, and the boot that mounts to the top and goes to the starter...finally I got the juice flowing, but the starter motor is just spinning freely...I am not sure if the wiring is incorrect or whether the starter is not engaging because of the electromagnetic clutch..I was told to try and crank it while someone hits it with a wrench...Any help would be greatly appreciated because the truck is now on the street without tags and needs to be put back on my property....

 

If it's spinning it should be engaging unless it's bad as far as I know. Probably a bad starter.

 

So i got the starter engaged by putting the truck in gear and pushing it forward a foot or so..now the motor is spinning freely and the fuel pumps are turning on but it wont start...so I assume its got to be spark..Could I have damaged something during all this? I got 8 new copper motorcraft plugs when i got the starter relay and I had planned on replacing the wires too even though it currently has some 8mm but older ones...could the distributor cap be bad? How could i diagnose my starting problem....If i had another hand it would be easier because i could have someone check the plug for spark while i crank it but its just me....any suggestions would be helpful..thanks....

 

you should be able to lay a plug somewhere in the engine compartment so that you can peek between the hood and the cowl to watch for spark while you crank the engine. obviously this method works better in the dark. good luck !

 

Use a remote start switch. Make SURE transmission is in NEUTRAL (or Park, if applicable) and parking brake is set, since you're bypassing the clutch (/neutral) safety switch.