1987 F-250 No Start

[blaster77]

Hey guys...I'm a member from thedieselgarage.com and ford-trucks.com and I have now joined over here. I'm having a little problem now.

A little background:
My truck has 195k on it, ran strong as hell, and also ran better than my brother's 97 cummins.
My brother and I recently installed an aftermarket cd player in my truck. I didn't have a dash kit so I drove my truck for a day with the player on the floor. I got the dash kit, installed the cd player and checked to see if it worked using the accessory ignition. When I got in my truck to goto school, it would not start. It wont even crank. The wait to start light is solid, then goes out. Clutch is all the way at the floor. I go to turn the key over and nothing. There is power to everything in the truck.
I can also get out of the truck and cross the solenoid while in neutral and start the truck with a hammer.

Now I know some of you are more inclined in trucks than I will ever be and especially in diesels. What exactly can be wrong? I took it to my family's mechanic and he says one of the accessory ignition wires was melted.(Fuseable Link?) So basically my truck won't start because of an aftermarket cd player? it doesn't make sense to me.

Any help is appreciated and I'm not in to the whole typing thing so if you have to read this more than once to get it, sorry.

Thanks for your time, guys.
Chris

 

[Diesel JD]

Well Ford's wiring sucks as it is...any more load on it isn't going to help.... hopefully fixing the fusible link will fix your problem. Make sure your grounds and fuses are good, you should be fine. Also, the fender mount starter solenoid could be bad...cheap and easy fix if it is, just make sure to get everything hooked up and grounded right. Good grounds and clean connections seem to be the key to keeping the electric system happy.

 

[Shadetreemechanic]

check the switch on your clutch pedal as well, You might have knocked it loose. You can bypass it to test it.

 

[Agnem]

Sounds like you messed it up. Click my Moosestang album for schematics for your truck. Hope you know how to solder and use heat shrink tubing properly. Welcome to the site.

 

[blaster77]

Ha get this...the problem with my truck is when we were installing the cd player, I was playing around with the switches underneath the passenger seat and one of the was to control the factory keyless entry system. the switch was turned off and I flipped it up and it turned right over. AND I didnt have to pay the mechanic anything because he didnt fix it, I did.

 

[subway]

glad ya got it worked out, might want to throw a few bones to the mech anyway if he was a nice guy. they work hard and you dont want to give them the short end of the stick. you never know when you might be praying for one to help you out again.

 

[sle2115]

glad ya got it worked out, might want to throw a few bones to the mech anyway if he was a nice guy. they work hard and you dont want to give them the short end of the stick. you never know when you might be praying for one to help you out again.

+1

I am/was an ASE master tech and can tell you, I always tried to treat people right, but expected the same. I would try to find out how much time he had in it and do as was said. The guy will treat you "Extra" nice the next time you need bailed, and you may well need bailed at some point.

 

[blaster77]

I totally understand and I offered to throw him some cash for his troubles, but he denied. He said 5-6 hours he was looking for the source. The thing is, this mechanic gets plenty of work from my brother, whom is a car dealer and sends all his work to this mechanic. You guys are right though, he treated me right and i will settle it with him as well.

Thanks for your input.