OK I have a 1980 f150 351c 4x4. I recently had to replace my battery, and reground one of the wires. Last night I hit some speed bumps going a little to fast, about 5 minutes later just driving down the road, the truck cuts off. I popped the hood looked around(I did not touch anything though) and figured out that either the battery is dead or the ground is bad. Then all of the sudden my headlights come back on, and I turned the key and she fired right up. I hop in and take off, I got about 50 yards down the road and then the same thing happened again. I then, wiggled the battery ground at the terminal and then it cranked up I was near my high schools football field so I drove over their as fast as I could, I forgot to turn on my head lights, so I turned them on and then it cut off again. All of this is happening after a football game that we lost 49-14 against a rival region team and it is 40 degrees outside and I don't have a dry shirt b/c of the game.(I'm a center linebacker) anyways I then gave up on the truck and bummed a ride home from a buddy, yea he was in a Chevy k-5 blazer.. So I went back by this morning to look at it.It cranked right up. I popped the hood to check out everything, as soon as I pulled the handle to pop it she cut off. I tried to crank her again and nothing at all, no click, click, nothing, everything was dead. So I got pissed and towed it home with my Tacoma. Do I just need to ground the - wire in a better place or is something seriously fuc$%^ up?

 

I would clean (wire brush) both ends of each battery cable for a starting point.

 

I have already done that. I just replaced both ground wires. Is it normal to have 2 ground wires going to the frame? one of them is 4 gauge wire and the other is 10.

 

No, but I can't imagine it'd hurt anything. My single battery ground goes to my engine
block, there's another cable on the back of the intake manifold that connects to the firewall.

Regardless, it sounds like you could have a pretty serious grounding issue, OR bad
connections at the starter solenoid (where the cables connecting to the alternator and fuse
panel connect) OR one or more problems with your fusible link(s) (or a combination of the
above).

 

i'd swap in a different battery if you have one laying around or bum a buddys, replace the selenoid, and double check the connection on the starter.... best of luck to ya

 

OK, I am about 90% sure that the battery is good because when it did crank it registered at about 11 to 12 volts. I do have another one that I could try. I will replace the soliniod, etc... But what is weird is that the p.o have the tail light wired to a switch on the dash and they come on fine. So the battery must have a good connection right...There must be something else that has blown that transfers the batteries power to everything else? right? I'm gonna start checking fuses too. Also lately before this happened, my stock gauge lights sorted out(but my aftermarket ones didn't), the gauges still worked But I couldnt see them at night. Also my horn shorted out. and for a while every time I would turn on the ignition a burning smell and a little smoke would come out of the steering column. I have a grant aftermarket steering wheel which I installed about a year ago. I cant get the horn cap to come off anymore to see what happened. the cap comes off by pushing in on it then turning it, but it seems to be stuck. Now I did hit some speed bumps to hard the other day, could that have triggered everything to go crazy? I have not tooken this truck in the mud for about a year now. but have alot before that, too. Sorry about all of the info, im just trying to help ya'll understand my problem better. Thanks for the input guys!

 

Would it be better if I grounded my battery on the block verses the frame.

 

First red flag - one has to wonder why the need for that.

There's a chance but no guarantee... heat produces resistance, corrosion produces
resistance... These little bulbs and the ignition use relatively small amounts of power; the
headlights & heater fan use substantially more, and crappy wiring/bad connections that
have heated up might be able to only intermittently supply power to them.

Fusible links are one possibility (I think I mentioned them already).

*ding* *ding* *ding* Bejeezus H. Krist, dude, why are you ignoring the
obvious problems?????? Electrical things aren't working and you've got
electrical smoke coming out of your steering column, what more of a hint do
you want??? Do you expect little, red, waving flags to pop out, too, with
signs saying LOOK AT ME!!! LOOK AT ME!!!

Yes, if your wiring is all fubar'd.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if your steering wheel conversion had something to do with
your problems....

EDIT: Yes; the starter motor draws the most electrical current, it's attached to the block.
Having the battery attached to the block, too, is optimal.

 

my guess would be the ignition switch,sounds like something came loose.

 

Smoke from under the dash, around the steering column no less. I would have to say that you need to disconnect the battery, pull any lower dash panels that can be pulled and maybe lower the whole sterring column and start looking at wires. Something under the dash "let its smoke out" and you need to find out what it was and what all it damaged.

 

guys, I really appreciate the help. Ctubutis I am a senior in high school who plays football in the fall and soccer in the spring and I work on top of this, in other words im busy as hell. I want to learn more about working on trucks, but I don't have a dad who cares and don't have anyone to show me. I'm a noob to all of this stuff, the only help I can really get for free is from y'all, and money don't grow on trees for me, so when I ask for help please don't give me smart *** remarks, I'm just here to learn. -Thanks

Ok today I checked all of the fuses in the box and they all were fine. I wiggled one of the ground wires on the solenoid and went to turn the key to see if anything would happen, I turned it 3/4 the way and she cranked right up, the starter kept going though and was grinding pretty bad, so I turned the key back a tad bit to see if it would help and it shut off, I repeated the same process to more times and it kept happening. Normally I have to turn the key all of the way for it her to crank so now I am thinking something is wrong with the ignition switch, also when she cranked none of the gauges or CD player worked. So I recon 86bigred might be right. Is their any write ups on how to replace an ignition switch, that is if this is the problem...

 

also ctubutis, I know that there is something wrong with alot of wiring stuff, I might have ignored some of this stuff but it only smoked from the column a couple of times and then stopped(shorting out the horn) So I figured well, what the hell the horn sounded like **** anyways and most of the time I would give folks the finger so why do I need it!

 

Sorry, man, I don't mean to wail on ya and I'm not trying to say you're stupid or
anything, just trying to point out that the most likely location of your problem is making
its way to your nose.

And, I was somewhat upset that you didn't give us any of that information (about your
steering wheel & smoke) until afterwards, and people are therefore gonna be under the
impression that everything is stock as it came from the factory.

There could be a few different root causes of all your problems but, statistically
speaking, most failures like this are caused by something being changed.Your horn wire
is very close to the ignition switch circuitry, and I don't have the benefit of knowing
what you had before you started and what you have now and the condition of things (but
I *have* seen some pretty bad home-made engineering in trucks).

That being the case, my fist suspicion is the smoking steering column, ignition switch
wiring and the switch itself.

Anyway... Getting at the ignition switch is pretty easy... remove some screws that hold
on any plastic trim around the column, I suggest also removing the black, plastic collar
that surrounds the column. Next, there are four bolts, I think they're 1/2" or 9/16" and
they hold the column up to the dash. Remove them and let the column fall some; the
ignition switch is on top of the column, you can't miss it.

I also suggest trying to get the steering wheel off; I know you said you're having
problems but it's in your best interest to figure 'em out and get the thing off so you can
see what's going on.

There are no stupid questions, only ones that are never asked.
Post what you find when you get it apart....

 

i don't how to explain it,I'm better showing than explaining it, but Franklin2 and ctubutis and others here should be able to help with ignition switch adjustment or replacement.

 

Thanks a lot ctubutis, As you can tell I have been very frustrated with this truck and I think I took some of it out on you, sorry by the way. I am firstly going to try and get the steering wheel off, I'm sure that I can find a way. If I can figure out a way then I'll let you know what I find. Hopefully A new switch is not to expensive if that is the problem. Thanks