I have a '97 F150 XLT, 4.6. The truck has 260k and has been running fine. I decided to put a new engine in this weekend, since I pull a trailer during the summer for camping, and now I have no electrical power. I am not inexperienced at replacing engines or even tearing them down. It was uneventful until I wanted to start the truck.

When I was putting on the ground to the battery, it was sparking pretty badly and got hot. It was warm at the starter also. I checked the starter wiring and it was fine. I reconnected the ground cable to the battery and I have absolutely no power anywhere. No lights anywhere and the key turned on produces nothing.

I just need a little help getting started on troubleshooting this problem. I have a multimeter, but I'm no electrical genius. However, I can usually figure something out. I just need a start in some direction.

 

My friend, you have to know that the ground isn't supposed to spark at all unless there is some kind of a draw. When you have a lot of sparking (more like arcing) you KNOW that's a "NO GO"! Sounds like you've probably burned a fuseable link in the line and they're not the easiest things to find because often they're inside split loom that's then wound with tape. You definitely need to go back to ground zero and find out what your dead short is BEFORE you fix the fusable link! Are you absoulutely SURE you were putting the ground cable to ground and not to hot??? Could be one of the Mega fuses on the firewall or there is possibly a fuseable link from the alt. to the battery (inline). If you have wiring schematics it should show you where all the fuseable links are.

 

Thanks, I figure finding a dead short will be a challenge for sure. I must have screwed up somewhere - smashing a wire somehow or something. Its impossible to mess up the cables to the battery. Neither is long enough to reach the other. I never took the battery out so that can't be reversed, and even if it was, the cable would not reach on the ground side anyway.

 

This problem is solved. I found the problem at the starter wiring, kinda by accident. Originally, there were two wires on one post of the starter - one red and two black wires on one spade. The other post had a small red wire.

I found that by disconnecting the starter, I had power to everything in the truck, except for a way to start it! I knew something was wrong, so I tried it again without the two into one black wire. The truck immediately started. I have no idea why this all of a sudden changed.

At any rate, the new engine runs great after 33 miles. Not much of a test yet i know, but that's a good start. Maybe my escapade will help someone else with a similar problem.