I was changing plugs and did not unhook the battery. In the process I arked my rachet across the block mounted on the passenger side firewall. It has two wires that go to the battery on positive side. after it arked I lost all power to the ignition and whole truck. nothing comes on. Any ideas, I did check fuses and didn't find any blown. Help please.

 

did you check for power ( with a meter ) on both sides of the mega fuses on the firewall ?

from the 1997 owners manual :


Might also want to test the alternator field fuse as well.

Not too sure which side you shorted at the starter motor relay.

did you check the voltage at the battery ?
- make sure you did not take the battery to open cell.

 

The megafuse was the problem. Thanks

 

I am in a similar situation as the other guy, I changed out Starter Relay and only disconnected the + and bumped a terminal and sparked. Now no power to anything, except I can jump battery to the Start terminal on relay and it will start and run as long as I keep the jumper on.

Have checked all panel fuses and the fusible link, all good.

I can not find the darn Mega Fuses anywhere on the firewall. Have not yet pulled the battery to see if is hiding there.

Any insight on where Mega Fuses can be on a 2000 F150?

Thanks.

 

You don't have Mega Fuses on that model year.

 

Also, there should be a 4 awg cable running over to the PDB under the hood. They changed the electrical distribution around, - seems like every other year. I believe you have MAXI fuses, check those.

 

Appreciate your reply.

I asked a friend Ford Tech who pointed out my "lose of power following replacing Starter Relay" was a misplaced wire when installing new relay. I was in too big a rush and didn't bother to photo the replay before pulling wires!!!!!!

He said the relay was not the starter solenoid an instead was a relay to "excite" the solenoid. Ford starters were now like GM, with solenoid on the starter.

My Ford Tech also said the Mega Fuse was under the fender mounted fuse panel.

After I corrected my wire hookup snafu, everything was perfecto.

 

Good deal.

He said all that lol. Close! Part for part, you have two solenoids. They began calling the firewall relay a "Solenoid" some time ago. Why ? Iduno, just to confuse. I still refer to those as the starter relay personally. Easier to differentiate from the starter solenoid (the one that piggybacks the starter) ; - until you had to order the part anyway. That's when you need to look at the part guys computer, - just to make sure he's going for what your after. Easy to get that one all mixed up if you don't lol.


Fuses, -you have mini's and MAXI's on that model. No MEGA's. The tech was referring to your MAXI's, which is a simple mistake.

Other than that, - yea, a cheap digital camera can be priceless out in the shop lol.

Glad you got her goin.