So I get home from work and decide to take the truck on a test drive before the Branson show next week.
I'm a few miles in and I lose power. It dies in the middle of on coming traffic. Luckily the traffic was light. I was attempting to turn on a side road. Fortunately a few guys assisted in getting it off the main road.
At first I thought it was a battery problem (come to find out it was an issue with my voltmeter). A guy stopped and offered to take me to get a new battery. Testing said good but needing charge, but I knew it had good charge. So I just got a new battery.
That didn't help.....
I get to troubleshooting in hot weather. My usb power light wouldn't come on when I turned the key, the all of a sudden it would come on and run for a few seconds.
So some sort of ignition and wiring issue. I'm going to head back out and wire power directly to the coil and see what that does.
If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. I will let you know how it goes.

 

Something popping the self resetting circuit breaker?

 

Just totally a wild guess but if you turned the key and it didn't work, then it did for a few seconds, a bad/failed switch might be my first thought.

 

I had a similar problem when I took my F-2 for a shake down tour around the state before heading to PA in '23. Got about 20 miles for home, came to an intersection just outside a small town and the truck died. It wouldn't start and the helpful people behind us thought blowing their horns would make the truck move. My wife and I ended up pushing across the intersection. I saw a battery cable lose. Tightened it down but still wouldn't start. After some messing around I pulled the distributor cap off to see if I was getting a spark. Nothing, I stuck a screwdrive under the arm of the points and noticed they stuck just a little. Ended up sanding the contacts, adjusted them with a piece of thin cardboard and we were on our way without another problem for the rest of our 500 mile trip. Hope something as easy as that is your problem.

Good thing you had some help come along that did more than just blow their horn.

 

The wife drove me back out to the truck and I started troubleshooting.
First thing I did was move the coil wire to the hot wire of the ignition. That was easier said than done. Back on the seat feet up in the air with a headlamp on to see.
Well it started up. Good news.....well no it wasn't. That was the intermittent issue, I should have taken pause when the usb light was on. I got to the end of the driveway and it died.
A few cuss words later and I'm drenched in sweat (80 degrees with 82% humidity at 8pm). I grabbed the wire and tools and created a jumper between the battery side of the solenoid and the coil. Now I'm off and running.
Of course I have no lights. I also pulled the fuse for the ignition just to make sure it was running on just my jumper wire.

I got home and then pondered on how to shut the engine off. I pulled a battery cable. Well my alternator does a good job of supplying power and the engine kept running.
Finally I pulled the coil boot. Then I unhooked my jumper and fully unhooked the battery and came inside.

Could be bad switch, but if I put the coil and hot both on the same post, that should have bypassed the switch. I couldn't get the switch off. Anyone know the trick to remove the ignition switch?
I might start there, then it will be finding the wire with the short. Not looking forward to that task.

 

If I remember correctly you should be able to reach under/behind the dash and grab the ignition switch and push it towards the rear of the cab, against the spring that encircles the ignition switch. Then you should be able to give the outer collar/bezel a quarter turn to remove it. The switch then just pulls straight back towards the firewall and free of the dash.

I could be full of crap but that is how I remember it.

Good luck.

 

My understanding is completely different...

You press the spring loaded button highlighted below and pull on the **** at the same time. This releases and removes the **** and shaft from the switch.



With the **** removed, one can use the special bezel tools or a screwdriver to remove the bezel nut that threads into the switch sandwiching the dash and bezel.



Bezel Nut

Bezel

Once the bezel nut is unthreaded, the switch and bezel are free from the dash.

Installation is reverse of the removal: Position the light switch behind the dash and the bezel in front of the dash. Thread the bezel nut into the light switch and sandwich the dash and bezel. Press the spring loaded button on the switch assembly and insert the **** and shaft. Release the button and that should be it.

If you need a new 55 light switch assembly, Dennis Carpenter has them on sale right now:
https://www.dennis-carpenter.com/tru...adlight-switch

 

Yes your instructions for ignition switch removal are spot on

 

joe was asking how to remove the ignition switch not the headlight switch but your post is correct for headlight switch removal as well

 

I see that now! I was likely still on the circuit breaker chain of thought! Hopefully Harrier gets this figured out quickly and finds it is something pretty simple!

 

Hi Joe!

I agree with 52 Merc about maybe it being an intermittent IGN swich. Any chance you have a lot of keys hanging on the key ring putting some extra weight on the key causing maybe worn contacts inside the switch to bounce around? Well anyways, in my 56 manual it talks about testing the IGN key switch. It has you measure the voltage from your coil primary wire to *ground while you have a helper cycle on and off the key, and wiggling it around. Each time the switch is cycled ON you should see the same voltage. If you are seeing different or fluctuating voltages then the switch is bad. Also do this test with the points closed or with the distributor side of the coil temporarily grounded. That way current is being drawn by the coil, so it will really stress test that IGN switch.

* The manual actually describes a voltage drop test. But for your purpose you are just trying to test the IGN switch.

Maybe even easier. Get a small 6 volt bulb such as one used in the instrument cluster. Solder a pair of wires to it long enough to leave it hanging somewhere in your cab so you can see it. Wire the ends between your IGN coil primary wire terminal and the other to a good ground. Then like mentioned above exercise the key. If it's not dimming or flashing, then drive the truck. If the truck dies, does the bulb dim or out? If it doesn't, I would look closer at a ground problem between the distributor to points wiring, look over that outside terminal and feed through insulators really well. If all good there inspect the distributor to points breaker plate ground strap to see if it's loose or broken.


Sorry so much! Hope it helps!

Stu

 

Since I put a jumper from the solenoid to the coil I would think that from the coil down to the plugs is fine.
That would point back to the wiring from the coil to ignition switch or switch. Correct?

Good suggestions on testing the switch. I hope to get to that in the next couple of days. It might have to wait until the weekend though.

 

Since I put a jumper from the solenoid to the coil I would think that from the coil down to the plugs is fine. Yes sir I believe you are right about that. I forgot that you could drive the truck with no issues while hot wired.
That would point back to the wiring from the coil to ignition switch or switch. Correct? ​​​Yes correct.

 

I keep going back to when Joe said he turned the key to on but the USB port power light didn't come on, then moments later it did and the truck would start. That says bad switch to me. Unless there's a bad wire or connection at the switch or somewhere upstream, based strictly on what we know here, my money is on switch.

 

The issue with that is it didn't work when he jumpered out the switch. That points at a wiring issue.