OK guys, my dad is an electrical engineer, and lets just say I didn't inherit his skill with electrical. If you could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Yesterday my truck, a 97 F-150 started up just fine as usual. After a few minutes I turned my headlights on because it was raining pretty hard. A second later I looked down and noticed I have lost power to all my gauges. Not just the lights, the gauges themselves were acting as if my truck was shut off. My windshield wipers were moving very slowly so I shut them off thinking it might be an alternator problem and I would need to save the power. Headlights wont work, radio is off, all gauges are dead, wipers now wont work at all, turn signals dont work, I have no power to my truck, yet it is still running, albeit somewhat sluggishly at low rpm. I manage to get it pulled off the road into a parking lot and turn it off. I call for a ride and am picked up. I come back an hour later with jumper cables and my truck fires right up, all gauges working etc. with no assistance. Within 2 minutes everything shut off again and it wont turn over at all. My house is only a few minutes away so i jumped it, again when connected with the jumper cables, it fired up, had all guages working then a minute later they all die. The motor still runs though so I limped it back home. Pulling into my driveway the engine shut off. When I open the door I can hear some relay clicking on and off, and my dome light will turn on and off with it. If I leave the truck for a while, and turn the ignition on, my gauges will act normal but when I turn it over they die. I have NO idea where to start, if anyone has dealt with anything like this before please help!

 

I can tell you that I had the same experience a few months back. I also have a 97 with the 4.6. A policeman came by and pushed me out of the intersection. I called AAA and after a jump start all was well.

I cleaned my battery terminals and replaced my battery. All has been okay since then.

 

Did you test the battery ?

Sounds like a battery problem, considering it can be jumped and it works, then dies after the cables are removed.

 

ok ill put in a new battery and see if that does the trick.

 

well I cleaned up my positive battery terminal that was slightly corroded and she runs like a dream. Never seen a car act like that because of a dead battery or corroded terminals. Thanks for the help, I wasn't looking forward to spending the weekend diagnosing electrical problems. Almost as good as a get out of jail free card.

 

I wonder if the clicking on and off you hear is similar to the clicking I sometimes here..... The oddest thing is that I only hear it when I'm in reverse and have the wheel turned and if I press on the break, a ticking sound coming from the steering column (not the keys hitting it either). I've also got a 97', but haven't noticed a single issue with drive-ability or electrical.