So I get a new F150 to play with yesterday and it looks to be in good shape. A 1997 with good paint, decent interior, 70K on the odometer. It won't crank or spin over with the key. I put a new battery on it along with a starter and solenoid on the firewall which were all missing when I got the truck. The GEM module inside the truck had been removed by previous owner and was laying in floorboard. I reinstalled the GEM, that was fun, and turned the key to nothing. There is no power coming to the interior fuse panel. There is power to the fuse panel under the hood and all the fuses are good in there. Any ideas where I should start. There has to be a reason why the fuse panel hot lead is not hot inside the truck. Thanks guys.

 

Have you checked the maxi fuses under the hood?

 

The ALWAYS HOT circuits in the under-dash fuse box are all fed from fuse F22 under the hood. Start there, trace power to the under dash fuse box as needed.

 

A thought, which could be totally useless, does that truck have a fusible link?

The only other thing I can think of that would kill everything is a bad battery ground. How's the connection at the other end of the ground cable from the battery?

- Jack

 

No, see above. 97 and 98s don't have them.

A bad ground will not prevent power from getting to the inside fuse box although, depending on how the measurement was taken, could cause meter readings that indicated such if care was not taken during testing. For example, if the under-hood readings were made with the negative meter lead on the battery negative post and the inside readings were take with that same meter lead connected to what was assumed or believed to be ground, the inside readings would be invalid and probably cause a wrong diagnosis.

 

Ok. Truck started today. Here's what I think happened. The previous owner, I'm guessing, lost gauges and radio and AC inside the truck all at once. They pulled the fuse box from under the dash and fried something in the fuse box while they were trying to check the GEM module. They put it all back together and it didn't work and wouldn't crank. They tinkered with the idea of a GEM module and gave up when they lost fire to the ignition.

Today I pulled the fuse box after checking the F22 fuse and found it hot. I checked for power in the plugs in back of fuse box and they were hot with power but nothing was getting through to the fuses. Ok, replace the fuse panel. Went to the truck farm junkyard and found a 1997 truck and pulled the fuse panel and GEM. Back to shop and install both and the truck cranks. It idling rough as hell with no gauges working so I shut it down swap out the GEM with my original. Crank the truck back up and now it's idling smooth with no gauges. I think the junkyard GEM was for a V8 and I have a V6. Truck drives great now.

Tomorrow the plan is to take it to the dealership and attempt to re flash the GEM. If that doesn't get the gauges going I can swap out the instrumental panel with a spare I have or replace the GEM with a new one. I'll keep you posted.

 

The GEM doesn't have anything to do with the instrument cluster. It also doesn't care about the engine. You can likely skip that trip to the dealer.

The cluster is powered by fuse F29 in the newly installed fusebox. Start there, it's a commonly blown fuse due to chafed wires in the column shift lever.

 

You take a mess like this to a dealer and they will nearly throw you out or it will cost you more than the truck is worth if they even try and still may not straighten it all out.
The GEM does not control the dash or the engine.
You and the original person have no idea what your doing.
It may sound offensive and sorry to say it like that but that's how you ended up here.
Some of the posts lately on these boards and the replies are so far out, so much guessing and incorrect things said, I won't even try to help because at those points, no body is listening.
As poor as the above sounds it is an attempt to help put feet on the ground before walking.
Good luck anyways.

 

It appears he's doing okay, just not overly familiar with the F150 he ended up with. He's following instructions well enough that this one can be resolved.

Cut this poster some slack, save it for the completely oblivious. There's plenty of those.

 

Thanks, sir. I did not read his first post carefully enough. I was working on the thought that nothing was receiving power. I overlooked the part where he said there WAS power to the underhood fuse panel. It was probably a "senior moment".

- Jack

 

Well what does the GEM do then?

 

This might help or confuse you!

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...ontrol.193667/

 

Well today I got to checking the instrumental panel. Turns out fuse 2 was ok and fuse 29 had a bad connection. I cleaned it up and reinserted the fuse and the instrument panel gauges started working. Still no AC or radio though. So I checked out the AC system and found it to be low on Fre on and the low pressure switch was shutting I down. Added a pound of freon and the AC now works. I think the radio is just bad. I'll check that later but right now the truck rides great. Thanks for the help.

 

Congratulations! Good Job!