lonster
New Member
Hello everyone. After a pretty extensive search of this site, I cannot find a similar problem, so I will ask you all for help.
I am new to this forum but I have been a SHO'er since 1991.
My car is a '91 with 198,+++ miles and been a great car (till now).
Last week the SHO wouldn't start. I found that a door had been left ajar and thought a simple jumpstart would solve my problems (no such luck). I attached the jumper cables from my F100 and got in the car to start when I see a puff of smoke from the starter relay (solenoid) area. I remove the jumper cables and inspect the damage. The BLACK fusible link attached to the relay is what fried. (It is important to note that at this point I still have dome lights and such)
I remove the starter and relay for testing/ replacement and the starter checks out fine. I replace the relay, as it's 13 years and almost 200,000 miles old, and replace all items. I also replace the burnt portion of the fusible link and charge the battery up fully.
NOW I have NO power ANYWHERE after the starter relay. No dome lights, no ignition buzzer, no nothing. No power to the fuse box either. I have done a little testing and I can get power on the replaced fusible link before AND after the repaired section.
I suspect the ignition switch is bad as it has been getting looser and looser for a long time and may have caused the initial short (Maybe?). Or maybe the headlight switch?
There is a secondary power wire that starts at the battery (+) lead and goes somewhere (Yellow wire). Could this be the problem?
I also need to know the correct way to connect all the wires to the starter relay as I am starting to doubt my memory of the way they were originally.
I will look at the wire diagram on this site and add my findings to a following post.
Please feel free to ask any questions or assist me in any way you can. This is not my primary source of transportation any more but my wife likes it better than driving the beater F100
.
Thanks you in advance for all your help.
Lonny (Lonster)
I am new to this forum but I have been a SHO'er since 1991.
My car is a '91 with 198,+++ miles and been a great car (till now).
Last week the SHO wouldn't start. I found that a door had been left ajar and thought a simple jumpstart would solve my problems (no such luck). I attached the jumper cables from my F100 and got in the car to start when I see a puff of smoke from the starter relay (solenoid) area. I remove the jumper cables and inspect the damage. The BLACK fusible link attached to the relay is what fried. (It is important to note that at this point I still have dome lights and such)
I remove the starter and relay for testing/ replacement and the starter checks out fine. I replace the relay, as it's 13 years and almost 200,000 miles old, and replace all items. I also replace the burnt portion of the fusible link and charge the battery up fully.
NOW I have NO power ANYWHERE after the starter relay. No dome lights, no ignition buzzer, no nothing. No power to the fuse box either. I have done a little testing and I can get power on the replaced fusible link before AND after the repaired section.
I suspect the ignition switch is bad as it has been getting looser and looser for a long time and may have caused the initial short (Maybe?). Or maybe the headlight switch?
There is a secondary power wire that starts at the battery (+) lead and goes somewhere (Yellow wire). Could this be the problem?
I also need to know the correct way to connect all the wires to the starter relay as I am starting to doubt my memory of the way they were originally.
I will look at the wire diagram on this site and add my findings to a following post.
Please feel free to ask any questions or assist me in any way you can. This is not my primary source of transportation any more but my wife likes it better than driving the beater F100
.Thanks you in advance for all your help.
Lonny (Lonster)
