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My '98 5.4 XLT intermittently starts, idles slow and then when put in gear stalls. It has happened twice, it is out of warranty and local mech hasn't had any luck finding the problem as it always works in his presence. Also, the driver A/C temp potentiometer is very hard to turn, I priced the unit and they want $125.00 for the 3 switch assy. I removed the unit and inspected the pot, lubricated and tested it with a meter and it seemed to work fine for a while and is locking up again. I removed the rear control unit to swap the pot, but of course they are different. Does anyone know where I could buy just the .25 cent pot to replace myself? It seems to be a 0 - 5K ohm pot.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. The tip about using the vehicle to program the key sent steam out of my ears as I just got ripped by the dealer for the $50.00 programming!!! Thanks!
As for your potentiometer, try a local Radio Shack and see if they have the right size one. If not, look in the telephone book for a local electronics shop/outlet store. You third option is to find a local wrecking yard/junk yard and look inside of almost any Ford that is new and get the pot from out of that vehicle (doesn't have to be an X since Ford (and other manufacturers) are using a lot of the same components for all of their vehicles. I recent pulled the fuse clips from out of a Taurus to add in an additional circuit to the fuse box in my truck. Just have to do some searching. Try for the obvious first (F-150's and X's), but if they don't have those, go for any new Ford.
Hope this helps,
Chris "Thermo" Coleman
http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/6916/exped.htm