Picked up a 97 F-150 today, just over 100k, estate sale truck. 2wd,auto, 5.4 V8. Anyways while I was driving home, on the turnpike, no probs and it just shut off. At this point I have nothing. Disconnected battery, checked the cables to see if anything broke or loose, hooked up battery. Now I have lights, but truck will not start, any ideas where to look? Thanks and appreciate it.

 

Does it turn over and just not start, or not even turn over? It's a tip that you had nothing and now you have lights. Estate sale means the truck probably hasn't been run for quite a while. If the lights are bright (as in is the battery charged up?) Do you know that the battery is actually any good? If you turn the lights on and they are bright, not just on, but dim, turn the key and see what happens. (you'll need help for this) If the battery is actually charged up and the lights dim when you turn the key, you have a bad connection (probably dirty or corroded or loose) somewhere. IF the battery is charged up, you need to start at the battery and go down the line checking to see where the poor connection is. Don't assume because a connection isn't growing green stuff that the connection is good, Take it off and take a small wire brush and make it shine. Matter of fact, start at the battery and do that to all connections. If it's been setting, that's not uncommon. Good luck and check back if you need more help.

 

Turn the key on , and leave it in park. The jump the firewall solenoid with a screwdriver, just to eliminate that first. Then like Code58 said, trace out a bad connection.