[drailed]

Been having a problem recently with my 96 F350. The truck has the 7.3 powerstroke in it. Every now and then it will just shut off but sometimes come right back on again. Lately its been doing it more frequently and the other night I had a hard time getting it running again on the side of the road. I believe its an electrical problem because I noticed that the problem can be made to happen when you push the e brake pedal in and release it. That sometimes will shut the truck off. It also does it sometimes when you tap on the electrical plug on the firewall where it plugs into the PCM. The other night when it got bad I could hear the glow plug relays under the hood clicking and the wait to start light was flickering. Today the truck seems fine. I'm thinking its possible some water may be leaking into the PCM. Any of you guys ever dealt with this?

[mechanickeith]

Check your charging system & make sure its up to snuff. Pull all the plugs to the pcm & look for corrosion on the pins. I belive the pcm is under the left fender, above the fenderwell. Next you will need to get it scanned to see what it has for codes in it.

[PonchoV8]

How about corrosion on the PCM pins?

[drailed]

Thanks guys, Im going to pull it apart this week and look at it. I wiggled the connections under the dash real good today and it was fine afterward for the rest of the day but after last night something is obviously wrong and I don't want to deal with that again. Im going to try pulling the PCM out and cleaning the contacts with alcohol then loading it up with electric grease and go from there. Looks like the inner fender may have to come out a little to get at it.

[BVR421]

I hope you can get that big ford back on the rails! Sounds all too familiar. I wish they would just pay attention at the factory. Maybe if design engineers were made to R&R their own assemblys for a while they would not be so smug. My ford will in general keep running since I replaced most electrical components including wiring harnesses that were installed over razor sharp body parts. radio works sometimes if I hit the power window buttons just right. Windows generally go back up after rolling down.
this is all quite discouraging when i think of buying a new (used) vehicle as it seems like what I hear from mechanic friends is that fords are pretty reliable nowdays.
Thats what I hear as they are racking up shop time on mine. sorry for friends with chevs and dodges if that is true.

[drailed]

I hear you on the razor sharp stuff under the dash. For the most part I had pretty good luck with my old 88. I went through that truck about 10 years ago and pretty much replaced everything but the frame and cab and the frame ended up being its demise. I still have it, just not sure what im going to do with it. Never gave me much in the way of electrical issues other than the fuel pump under the drivers seat. I picked up this old 96 crew cab dually a few months ago. It was from South Carolina and it has 76k on the clock. Hoping to keep it around for awhile.

[The Boss]

Cam position sensor.

[Trulyvintage]

Head over to Oilburners

Good advice there for Ford truck owners @ http://www.oilburners.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12

Good cached tech articles too


Jim

[mechanickeith]

The Boss may be correct. Forgot about that one. There is a recall out on the cam position sensor. Any Ford dealership will install a new one free of charge. Right front of motor just above the crank balancer. If the sensor is black with a gold annodized mount bracket, it needs changed. The new one is grey with silver.

[drailed]

That was the first thing that came to my mind, a buddy just had his giving him headaches in his 350, then when I noticed the thing under the dash with the parking brake and wiggling the connection I assumed it was under there somewhere with the PCM. I'm going to check the CPS out and see if its been changed out, thanks for pointing out the difference Keith.

[mechanickeith]

Like I said, if its black with gold bracket, take it to Ford & get it swapped out. Usually takes about 10 minuits to change including paperwork.