I would like to provide this thread as a reference. I have a 1997 F150 (manufactured in 1996 with a Windsor engine, now that's another thread ) I bought it second hand with no Owners manual.

My 1997 F150 had no stop/tail or turn lights through its 7-in factory tow package. Having established there was power to the 12v (black) pin when lights were on and the Auxillary (Orange) wire when ignition was on. Looked at fuses and found none blown in the engine bay and interior fuse panels I knew about (no owners manual).

So we proceeded to work our way back from the connector to see if there was a broken cable. I got so far back and lost the cables in the main wiring loom.
Desparation set in and off to Mills Fleet Farm to buy a Hoppy adapter.... which did not fit ... there are two models for 1997 F150 40135 and 40145. The 40145 would not fit anywhere and the 40135 appeared correct, but would have connected to a connector I had tested and had no power.

Having been under a dripping freezing truck for awhile (pretty cold here in Minnesota) I need to get warm, and I decided to research a bit more online and waded my way through a number of threads here at F150online. One thread pointed my to online pfd of Owners manual (which I could not find through main Ford site). Sorry I cannot remember who posted the site but thanks.

Thanks here to Genuine FLM Service site for the pdf Owners Manual. http://www.genuineflmservice.com/GB_Request.asp

This gave me the ability to find the fuses. But the fuse box shown on page 141 is actually mounted on the side of fender panel, not on the side of the main fuse box (you can see this in my gallery of images). I have another box attached to my main fuse box with just relays in it.
This is a tiny little sucker, and is tough to notice when you first look in engine bay, but was the root of the problem. Thanks to rlbell1 for this info in thread 'towing wire harness' that pointed me to the offending Fuse 2 - 20A.

There are some images in my album of the F150 tow package stuff (fuse boxes, connectors) that may help further discussions.

Another useful site for my investigations was http://www.etrailer.com/faq/wiring.asp which has great graphics of the connections in truck and on trailer.


Now thanks to F150online, cose without this site I would have spent lotsa bucks at the Ford Dealership !!!

 

I'm having the same problem. You mention some pictures in your photo gallery, can you give me a hint on where it is or how to get to it?

Rick

 

NikNik,
Can you post your answers and pic's on this site or tell me where I can find it? A friend and I both have '97 F150 XLT's and his has this issue now. We swapped just about everyone one of my relays from under the hood with his trying to find the bad one. Started by replacing the Brake controller and then testing all the wires after that didn't fix it. It's getting power out of the BC, but nothing from the relays (?) to the rear for brakes/turn signals. (I'm guessing that is where the power goes after it leaves the BC.) I found the PDC and the 6 relays next to it, but where is the other fuse box under the hood? The (3) fuses in the PDC were OK for the brake ligths/turn signals. Please respond, I'm afraid mine is just a matter of time before failing. Thanks.

 

My truck was also manufactured in 96. It has the 4 pin and I've considered upgrading to a 6 or 7. I've learned trucks made in early 96 have different connections to the wiring harness than later trucks. I ordered a 7 pin from J.C. Whitney once but it's connectors to the harness were different. My 4 pin connects along the frame using a gray, square connector. There is also an unused connector (round & black) in the harness that is capped off and has 2 wires, orange (auxiliary power) and blue (brakes).
Given 4 wires for existing 4 pin plus 2 unused wires that allows for a 6 pin system but is 1 wire short for a 7 pin.
I checked with Hopkins Manufacturing (Hoppy). The 7th wire in their kit 47185 is for trailer back up lights and would patch into the truck's existing back up light circuit.
The fuses/relays I have under the hood are:
#5; 30 amp Trailer Tow Brakes
#9; 40 amp Trailer Tow Battery Charge
#34; 20 amp Trailer Tow Lamps
Do you know if the existing back up light circuit for the truck runs through the 20 amp relay for trailer tow lamps? If it does that means patching the 7th wire into the existing circuit should be ok. If not, I would think doing so could overload the circuit. I'm also thinking of adding an auxiliary back up light to the rear of the truck and patching it into the system.

 

Did you guys check the small fuse block under the hood? There is a smaller fuse block that is about 1"X4" right next the the left fender, adjacent to the large fuse blocks. It is hard to notice since it probably has tape over the top. The fuses in there also have to do with trailer lighting

 

Hi Guys, sorry I have not come back to you. I been travelling alot. Here's the link to my images. The one showing the fuse boxes under the hood has a small fuse carrier in the top center of picture. The mini fuse box is a red horizontal block to the left of the relays, this should be the one you are after.

https://www.f150online.com/galleries...w.cfm?num=5519

To find or add your own image galleries select 'Photo Galleries' in the left hand navbar of this page then itis fairly simple to get to and inlcude your own shots.

 

i just had this same exact problem. only took me 11 hours of trying to figure out the problem, and if i wouldn't have found a similar thread to this, i'd still be working on it. thanks f150 online.

 

I have a 98 F150 4x4 and was having OEM trailer wiring issues. After exhausting all options I decided to try this new fangled computer thingy. I will be fishing with my son tomorrow because of this thread! Little fuse box, 20 amp fuse and I have power to the trailer again! Did any one write Ford and ask them to include these fuses in the owners manual? Thanks so much for this informative and very helpful forum!

 

Man this is a wonderful sight for ford trucks perhaps FORD should read some of these pages and add the info to the owner manuals.

 

Thank you for bringing up a thread that does not have the new links to the albums ( the one above is the old galleries, still finding these as time goes on.

The picture that I used projectSHO89's documentation on



Another picture from a member some time ago, wide angle, the cover is off the small fuse panel, relay panel still has the cover on it.



The 1997 Owners Manual documents the small fuse panel ( not the relays ), but for some reason the 1998 OM leaves this info out. They missed a bit in the drawing in the 97 OM, the spot shown is actually the relay panel..



And not related to the trailer tow adapter, but another odd fuse location when compared to the 99-03 ( and 04 Heritage & Lightning models ) is the alternator field fuse. This is by the mega fuses on the 97-98 MY ( 99 ?? )

 

These trucks are fourteen years old. Ford has new stuff to worry about.

BTW, I finally put a 5A fuse in that fuse-box's #1 position.

 

They might be 14yrs old but they still get the job done here on the farm no since dragging my new truck through the cow **** and mudd

 

The point is that Ford is NOT going to go back and change a fourteen year old truck's owner's manual.

 

The point I was trying to make is that FORD Could do a hell of alot better job on the New owners manuals that they put out each and every year.

 

I have a 1997 f 150. I have constant power to my turn signals. I can remove the fuse and they will go out. Any ideas? Thanks