1999 f150 4.6 4x4
1st problem series of events:

About..... 2 months ago my truck a/c become fairly weak.

unrelated to that my battery ran down overnight because of short in my k/c aux lights.

re-charged battery truck rain fine

roughly 1 week from that point forward truck randomly won't start
-battery has lots of charge lights radio windows all work
-starter wire was replaced 6 months ago (not the problem)

mechanics thoughts are that the a/c compressor clutch is causing problem draining battery power need to start truck. is this possible? has anyone heard of this?

no strange metalic rubbing noise is coming from under the hood fan or belt related can't pin it

2nd problem
did some light mudding and field driving on the weekend.
now it feels like i have little or no power steering.


When truck first starts no power steering
after driivng for a while there is a little
after a bunch of slow turns it goes back to feeling as though there is none again

any thoughts?

i have cleared all mud and debris from underside (from what i can tell)

thanks for your time
college kid

 

starting- if the a/c compressor is locked up i can see it being unable to start or if the battery is dead too. if your battery's cca are too low then it wont start or will have problems trying. did you check any fuses.

steering- do you have rack and pinion or linkages? if you have the linkage style steering, you probably blew out the seal in the steering box. or you tried turning too hard too fast and blew all the fluid out the cap.

 

'99 has recirculating ball steering. id check for leaks. might just need to top the fluid off. check there and see how it is.

go unplug the electrical wire that goes to the ac compressor, tie it up somewhere, and leave it unhooked for a while. see if that helps with your starting problem.

 

How's the serpentine belt?

 

Did you change the ground wire? Make sure all the connections from the battery to the Starter are clean and tight. Also check the starter solenoid relay switch on the firewall. Does it lack power when the HVAC control is set to OFF, PANEL or FLOOR? As was suggested, the serpentine belt could be slipping causing the lack of Power assist. Or the Power steering pump could be seizing causing the lack of power and power steering assist.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

Starting problem was the Soleniod! curently using a metal beer bottle opener to link the two bolts together and she'll fire right up.

haven't fixed the power steering problem but believe its air in the line

 

forgot to say thanks for all the suggestions