I have a 1998 F150, 4.2L V6, 2w Drive, Standard Cab Long bed with 300000 miles.
I was cruising down the freeway and my ABS light came on and in less then 5 min all my gauges went out and i started to lose power. i got it on a side street and the motor reved up and would not shift out of second and then it shut off all together.
I started with the alternator- is good
Battery- is good
battery cables- is good
It's not throwing any codes so i am at a loss. i'm out one day of work and fear for my job if i can't get my work hose up and running. If anyone can point me in the right direction i would be thrilled

Thanks

 

First thing is you have to find a way to get to work or you will have lots of time to figure this out.
Seems there is a basic loss of power if the dash has gone out and the computer is not getting power.
What do you have for lighting?
Does the motor crank over?
There won't be any codes for a basic power issue.
Good luck.

 

I got the motor to fire up but when i push the break pedal all the gauges drop and the motor shuts off. Letting off the brakes the motor will idle but only for a few minuets and the abs light is illuminated. before i could plug in the code reader the truck shut down and now i can't get the reader to come up with anything without it running.

 

Studying the Haynes drawings for the dash and brake system shows no cross relationship in power through common fuse power or grounds.
It appears there may be a harness cross issue since no fuses have blown.
Try this to get a little more info.
When the motor tries to stop with the brake pedal engaged, hold a little throttle on to raise the idle to see if he motor keeps running.
If yes, the IAC is closing down for some reason and your providing the air the IAC normally provides.
If no, some other fault yet to be uncovered is the cause.
The only connections the dash has to the PCM is from the temp sensor so a LIMP mode signal could be detected from overheating and a brake application signal to unlock the converter.
The PATS system if you have it is working ok or the motor would not start at all.
The ABS lamp gets it's input to the dash from outside and may be a separate issue. ABS normally cannot stall the motor or kill all dash functions.
Check out the wiring down the steering column and around the brake switch.
This is tough without a solid lead.
Good luck.

 

i would be scared if i couldn't read a schematic so thank you for your input i will let you know what i come up with.

 

I am having the same problem with my 97 Expedition, what was the outcome??? Was driving along and noticed no gages, abs light would barely light up intermittently, loss of power but was ok as long as I kept at speed. The only difference is sometimes my "theft" light would flash intermittently while I was limping it home. It finally died when I got in the driveway and I couldn't restart it (battery: click-click-click) but when I turned the key on to try to start it all of the gages would work.

 

Sounds like a dead battery, probably due to a failure of the alternator to charge the battery which finally ran out of juice.