If everything lights up on the dash but it won't crank, you can try this experiment. These trucks have a very common problem in the steering column.

Take the short cover off that is around the column near the dash cluster. Turn the key back and forth, you should see a rod moving on top of the column when you turn the key. Get some pliers, turn the key all the way to start, and then while holding the key in start, take the pliers and pinch that rod and "help it" by shoving it down toward the cluster. If the truck cranks, you have the famous broken piece inside the column. You can buy them in the store, they used to keep them in stock it was such a common problem.

 

Just finished all of this madness I had already previously installed a starter momentary push button, finally the entire mechanism went out so I've installed a heavy duty 35 amp toggle on off switch for ignition and accessories, when I previously installed the momentary push switch for the starter I did not remove the live wire from the plug on the steering column I just tapped into it down at the firewall where everything first comes in and if you do that I recommend installing an inline fuse just to be safe.

When it comes to the toggle switch I had four wires, and a live wire, the four wires were the two accessories and the two ignitions, I took the two ignitions put them together inside of a butt connector on one end and then a single wire at the other end of the butt connector and the same thing with the two accessories and then put eyelet butts on the end of the single wires so that I only have two wires hooked directly to the toggle switch but all four wires are connected.

Then I took one of the live wires from the plug and extended it using a butt connector and another string of wire to which I also put an eyelet on the end and connected it to the other side of the toggle switch.

There are three wires left on the plug one of them being the black and purple ( I believe) which is only stated as proof one and then the other live wire, and there seemed to have been installed two wires that were joined and put into one terminal in the plug that I'm unaware of the necessity so I left all of those in the plug and plugged it back in.



Oh I forgot to mention I had in fact taken four wires and put plug ins on them and simply plugged into the existing plug as seen, this way if I do end up replacing the cylinder and rod and gear I can still reuse them except for the starter wire which I have cut and then taped each one individually and then taped the groups together



​​​​​​I've been driving around a little bit with the plug inactive AKA without pushing in the rod on the column since my cylinder has gone out and I can't tell any difference in accessories drivability or anything of that sort but if I learn anything new I would definitely hop back in with my two cents

 

When you turn the engine off, does it stop "right now" like it did originally or does it take a second or two to stop, longer than it originally did? Sometimes you have a problem with those accessory circuits backfeeding voltage into the coil. Some alternator charging indicator circuits are famous for this. That is why they have all those wires on separate contacts. They are all together true when the switch is on, but when the switch is turned off, they are pulled off the 12v and they are also pulled off each other. Some vehicles have this problem, some don't.

Also realize EVERYTHING in the truck that uses power through the keyswitch is going through that switch. I would think your 35 amp switch would hold, but you do have a 30 amp circuit for the blower motor, and if you have electric windows they will have a 30 amp circuit also. They do not necessarily draw 30 amps since their fuse would blow if they got close to that but they do draw a pretty good amount of juice.

 

just had a similar issue with my 88 f250, just curious about your diagram of the ignition wiring harness, what is proof 1? does red/green go to turn on the coil? dk grey/pink what does that go to? does it make the radio work when turned past the lock position?

 

I love how this thread has kept going for so many years and wanted to add my .02.
The clutch position switch on my '94 F-150 just fell off and I can't get it back on properly. A new one from Autozone is about $75 and I couldn't wait for shipping from eBay.
So I got a 20A momentary push button switch, an in-line 20A fuse and 20ft of 12ga wire for around $30 total. (I already have a kit of wiring terminals)
I folded the length of wire in half and ran it out of the firewall and snaked it up to where the starter relay is, beside the battery.
basically, I wired the battery positive directly to the starter relay positive, with the momentary push button and fuse in the middle. The key still has to be turned over to run, but the key start position and the clutch position switch are bypassed. When I turn the key to off, the engine stops.
I was concerned about wiring directly to the relay terminal as it appears there could be a short circuit potential, so I put some insulating material around the relay terminal just to be safe. Once I made sure everything was working right, I put some RTV over the relay terminal in the hopes of preventing any water/moisture short circuit potential as well. I'm hoping those insulating things won't fail, but if they do the in-line 20A fuse should do its job and I won't get fried too bad when I push the button.
I feel like lower amp rating wire and switch would have been ok, but I always like to go a bit over the potential.

yeah, it's janky, but.... if it's stupid but it works, is it still stupid?

 

it would be safer and easier to just bypass the clutch switch by connecting the two wires for the starter circuit.

 

When you do circuits like this that hook directly to the battery, for whatever reason, always put the fuse AT THE BATTERY END. I am not sure from your description where you put the fuse, you said something about "in the middle". If the fuse is indeed in the middle somewhere in your circuit, that leaves the wire hooked from the battery to the fuse unprotected. The battery has tons of electrical potential. If something happened and the small wire hooked directly to the battery got pinched to something metal and grounded out, it would turn red hot before it melted in two, potentially causing a fire.

What you did is fine in theory, but just move the fuse as close to the battery as possible. There may be a very short distance of wire before you can mount or insert a fuse, but this short distance is a lot better than a longer distance snaking throughout the car or truck.