Working on PATS system
 

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What is this, came out of my steering wheel. Is it important or just for the air bag? I'm trying to put a new PATS system in my 2002 F150.

That is the clock spring. Yes it is important, not just for your airbag, but cruise and horn. That ribbon cable is wrapped around that so when you turn the wheel, so it's not yanking on cables.

Hopefully you've got a PATS programmer to program the sucker up.

I was hoping I could get past that by getting a key, Halo and computer from the exact make and model with the exact same features.

On an '02, the keys, the PCM, and the instrument cluster are a "married" set. You need all three (working) from the same donor, otherwise you need to reprogram the system. The transponder ring doesn't matter, it just has to work as it's only an antenna.

Thank goodness I grabbed the instrument cluster just in case. I haven't installed that yet, just the pcm and transponder with the new ignition and key and was still getting the 016 (bad reading to pcm) code. In theory then, I install the cluster from the donor and that should go away correct?

Assuming you haven't busted anything else in the process and that the donor parts are actually good.

Why are you messing with the transponder and the clockspring?

The transponder was busted, the metal contract that was in there was snapped off. The clock spring was a mistake, I was pulling the steering wheel to get the whole wiring harness cause the wire to the contact that was busted is connected to a small harness that also goes to the clock spring.

So, why can't you just replace the transponder and clock spring? Why would you need a key, PCM, and cluster?

The key had a chip in it that sends a signal code to the PCM

That device you are replacing in your steering column is (in laymen terms) is an antenna. That part doesn't give a hoot on how the system is programmed.

Thank you, I replaced the cluster and Bam, the PATS they light is not giving me a bad reading anymore. Now I have a crank and no start, acting like it's not getting spark. Can't be a fuel problem because I can hear the fuel pump kick on and I dumped fuel directly into the throttle body but still didn't fire. Now I gotta figure out what causing it to not fire. I should add, I got this truck a year ago all in boxes. I built it from the ground up so there are going to be little issues to work out to finish it. It's come along way from a frame with boxes of parts and a disassembled motor.

As stated above, you now have to have a dealer program the system and two keys.
The PATS, KEYS, Dash and PCM all have to end up communicating with each other.
Until that happens the PCM disables fuel injection..
The Theft system is very difficult to defeat which is the point of having such a system.
Good luck.

They are already programmed to read each other. Otherwise the anti theft light would blink to give me a code. The fuel pump engages but it's not the usual sound, more of a cranky whine. I'm sure it's the fuel pump. I got power to the coil packs, tested with a tester. No codes at all, gonna check the dash codes and see if it's still popping up the 9601 code.

If you have spark, it should fire if you use starting fluid. To properly test spark, you need an inline spark tester that connects between the coil and plug. You can use a fuel pressure gauge on the Schrader valve on the fuel rail to see if you have enough fuel pressure, and noid lights to see if the injectors are pulsing.

I'm just using a test bulb at the moment. Shows all could getting power. I had it almost fire last summer with starting fluid but knew it wouldn't stay started due to the PCM error, only did it to see if I wired and put the motor together properly. Now it won't fire even with starting fluid. I get a dt05E5 and a dtc9356 code on my dash in test mode now. I used to get a ton of codes before. I eliminated the error to pcm, error from key and dash to pcm code. I've come a long way, almost got her, just a couple issues left. Gotta search the dtc codes