I moved the truck this morning to jump start a tractor. It took quite a while to get the tractor started and I didn't have the truck running while jumping. Now I cannot shift the truck from park to drive without an immediate stall. Earlier this week I also had an issue with starting. The ignition will not work but I can jump the solenoid to fire it up. I should also say that I had the steering column apart last week to replace a broken actuator rod. After that repair everything was working well. Thoughts?

1988 F150 SuperCab
5.0L V8 Automatic w/ overdrive

 

you may need a scan tool to see if your TCC (torque converter clutch) solenoid is grounding out.

 

I did the scan and came up with KOEO 21 & 24 which I think is standard considering the truck was not running. The memory code came back with code 15: keep alive memory failure, power interruption or circuit failure. I think this may be because I disconnected the battery. I didn't see where the TCC was in the Haynes manual. Is this inside of the tranny?

 

look at the PCM connector or tranny connectoer

 

The 1988 truck does not have a TCC solenoid.

Yes the 21 & 24 are normal for a cold engine.
And the 15 happens when unhook the battery or unplug the EEC computer.

Will the truck stay running if you push a little on the throttle while putting it in gear?
If so you may have a bad IAC valve.

 

I may have narrowed it down to the ignition. I can play with the key and shift lever and get it to shift gears without stalling. It appears that the shift lever is turning the lock cylinder back just enough to shut the motor off. Does this sound right? Should I get back into the column to see what's going on?

I did get on the throttle a little to see if I could goose it while shifting. No luck. There's no hesitation when it stalls. It's as if someone shut the ignition off.

 

It does sound like there is something wrong in the column and you are going to have to go back inside the column to fix it.

 

How about the neutral safety switch? I've been trying to test it but there are four wires and I don't know which to test. Any ideas?

 

The neutral safety switch can not shut off the engine.
The neutral safety switch only prevents the starter from working when you are not in park or neutral.

 

SubFord,

Got it. That was a stupid question on my part.

I took the column apart again and found the ignition switch (the mechanical/electronic part mounted low on the column) had come loose. There is an adjustment on this part and it was too low to activate the switch to the start function. I must not have tightened the nuts enough when I installed the new actuator rod last week.

Before SubFord set me straight I took out the neutral safety switch and tested it. No issues there.

I'm off to finish putting it back together. Thanks for the replies.