Hi all,

I can normally figure these things out but am stumped and a search is not helping me. I have a 92F350 farm truck that got some mud stuck in the ignition column from a very deep mud hole. Drove around fine for a while but finally the ignition cylinder locked up and snapped the key.

I pulled the cylinder and since this was the second time in 6 months just welded a bolt to the gear inside to crank the starter switch rod. Now I can put a wrench on it to start... rod will plunge and crank the truck... but I have no ignition spark? I can't start it by jumping the starter relay either. Only thing that changed is that little wire that used to go to the ignition cylinder is no longer hooked to anything. I tried grounding it and no differance. Does this need to be jumpered to something or do I have an unrelated issue?

Thanks!
Tyler

 

Did you happen also to get a whole lot of mud up into the engine compartment as well? My first guess, given what you've provided, is to check all of the wiring - coil to distributor & plug wires would be a good place to start. Given the age of the truck and how it's used, I'm going to guess its been quite some time since that stuff was shown any love.

 

Coil, wires, cap, rotor, plugs, etc. are all fairly new along with an MSD ignition. Strange thing I noticed tonight... no spark while cranking yet sometimes I get 1 spark once I let off the starter.

I was thinking it was that wire to the ignition key cylinder since it died when I changed that. Do you know what that 1 wire going to the key cylinder is?

If it is not that I will bypass the MSD and test the rest of the electronics but I want to eliminate the simple stuff first.

Thanks again,

Tyler

 

Guess the wire to the cylinder doesn't do anything. Turns out the fuse box under the hood was completely packed with mud. Cleaned it out and everything runs great now.

I need to quit letting cute girls in white shirts ride with me... makes me drive thru to much deep water.

Thanks,

Tyler

 

The wire to the cylinder is for the key-in chime; nothing else.