Well its official I feelin like the world hates me! I gave up took to the dealer after many hrs of looking with no luck in finding the short for the towing package! His diagnosis? windshield leaking! dripping on2 the fuse box and now everything is corroded. Need new box and harness to fix correctly! is this true? seems like i have seen posts on this b4. The repair guy made it seem like this is all to common. Is there a recall or something? I bought this truck cuz my f350 was gud to me and i cudnt drive a stick since my accident and am in a wheelchair now but I AM BEGINNING TO WONDER IF THIS WORTH THE HASSEL. I am not made of money and i think this is gonna cost, anyone ever paid a dealer to do this? Am told the parts are ford only. HELP PLZ, Jay

 

Just kidding but seriously, I don't doubt for a second that your leaky windsheild ruined the fuse box. The bead around the glass has to be continous but sometimes they have low spots. I would attempt to clean it up or hit the wrecking yards for another one.

 

Ther are a few posts that describe the process of cleaning the fuse box and wiring including cleaning the GEM . Unfortunately it seems to be labor intensive as well as time consuming. I think you will need to find an independent repair shop that will work with you as the cost will be dear anywhere and extreme at the dealership.

 

Here's some info on your problem from a previous post of mine;

Here's the link to the info I was mentioning. Pay close attention to post #9.

[url]https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/87

Let us know your results.

 

Well, the link didn't work but I had a somewhat similar problem with my vehicle. PO had apparently spilled a lot of coke on the dashboard as the dried syrup was all over the inside of the dash. Corrossion on the fuses was causing intermittent problems. Just cleaning all of the fuses fixed the problem.

 

Here's the post from casey_ryan back in august of '09. Do a search as it includes pics.
I hope it helps.

Keith,

I took your advice by taking a look at the GEM today since it finally stopped raining. Pulled the #25 fuse in the engine compartment fuse block, and the issues I was having indeed did stop, but they have stopped all together again now that it has stopped raining, which makes me believe that the GEM getting wet may in fact be the culprit. Anyways.

I took the GEM out, and since I'm kind of new to the Ford terminology and parts, I'm not sure which part of this block is considered the GEM. These are the pictures I have taken to help me decipher what is what.



This is the main corrosion I found when taking it out. The connectors themselves shown here do not show any real signs of corrosion, but on the harness that plugs into these slots are where the corrosion is showing. Inside several slots there is a significant amount of "green fuzz" which is probably where my problem is coming from.



These are what the connectors look like. I did get some canned air and blow out the dirt and other junk that had built up in these connectors. These are the after shots, a lot of the corrosion had been blown away. You can still see some green on the bottom right of the brown connector, but the white is a little more difficult to see. Mostly in the same area as the brown. What was surprising to me was when I took the black plastic shield off the brown connector, there was a DIME bouncing around inside of it. I don't think it was causing any issues, but I definitely decided to remove it and put it in the piggy bank.



This truck's previous owner used it as a farm truck, and with how much dust, dirt, and grime I am finding as I take stuff apart, it is becoming more and more apparent how much of a work truck this used to be. In this picture, what exactly is this circuit board that I am looking at? Is this the GEM, or is the entire piece, fuse panel and all, the GEM? If this circuit board I am looking at is the GEM, I am not seeing any signs of corrosion with it, but I'm unable to remove it from the rest of the block, I don't want to break it.

At this point I'll wait for your response, and if this entire block is the GEM, then I will probably go ahead and replace the whole piece, and see if that gets me anywhere with this electrical issue. I hope I've provided enough information to continue any help you've given me.

 

I think the GEM is on the right under the dash all by itself and it costs more than most gems. You can open them though.

 

hey guys thanx for the replies! the info is very helpful to myself and others n a similar boat. I keep seeing the referal to a "GEM". What is this piece and its function? i wud do a search for the answer as i am on a mobile device not the laptop for another month as i am acting as a camp host for a park that does not have wifi and i am to cheap to buy a wireless modem thing from the cell phone company. Dont make sense when i going home n a month and wud have to pay for it for 24 months. anyway thanx for the help. jay