97 F350 4x4 Plow truck Intermitant no start.

[BigRigTech]

This belongs to a friend of mine, cranks fine but no fire intermitantly. He was just about to call a wrecker after sitting in a parking lot for an hour this morning when it started out of the blue. He brought it to my house, shut it off and it wouldn't start again. His E4OD trans is acting funny too, shifting very firm all of a sudden (this started this morning). No DTC's flashing on the O/D light. No DTC's in the PCM according to my scanner. After it sat for about an hour it started in nuetral but not park...Started several times this way. We replaced the trans range selector thinking we had it and it worked A1 but the check engine light was on when the truck was running. He took it for a test drive, came back, shut it off - no start again.

We replaced the cam sensor for the hell of it even though the tach was reading cranking speed - no change. Seems to be temperature related and electrical related . I think it's the trans shutting the engine down possibly as he said it's acting completely different than it usually does. I repaired a corroded wire on the bottom of the fuse box for relay #1 (PCM) as it was very green and swollen. I tried unplugging the injector harnesses one at a time while cranking - still nothing. I'm letting it cool down for a few hours and I bet you any money it will start.....Sitting right in the middle of my driveway.......Any idea's???

 

[h2odrx]

It might need good grounds? Like tranny and engine to frame?

 

[BigRigTech]

I had a quick look at the grounds, everything looked fine...As soon as you get it started the CE light is on and it runs fine. It started up easily last night after it sat for about 3hrs. Now if I drove it for a few miles and shut it off - it wouldn't have started. I couldn't put it in my garage as I have a 94 Dodge 2500 in there with a 12V that wouldn't start....Got it fired up last night - they put the new P pump on about 180 degree's out of time.......It fired right up once it was timed but I couldn't run it long with no serp belt or coolant in it.......Has a fuel leak at the pre-filter/heater that's letting the IP loose it's prime quickly.....Rusty old Dodge with 455K on it.

 

[MUDKICKR]

what engine does he have? gas or diesel? i know it says 97 f350 but what is the engine? if its gas then it sounds like an ign module. if it is the ign module ford says your suppost to replace the ign module and pickup coil as an assy. id try an ign module first though.

 

[BigRigTech]

7.3 PSD, hence my post in the PSD forum.

 

[MUDKICKR]

just making sure, also what kind of scanner do you have? usually if the pcm is bad then it would throw all kinds of dirfferent codes. i cant remember but does it have a crank sensor? cam sensor will not create a no start, but a crank sensor will. depending on the scanner you have you could watch the crank sensor while warm to see if it is giving a signal. also depending on the scanner it will have a "troubleshooter" section that will tell what the most common problems. i personally have a snapon solus, and it is a great machine. i also have a snapon modus at work. id just go over to the "data" part of the scanner and see what signals you are getting while its cranking warm

 

[BigRigTech]

My Innova scanner will only do live data on gas engines, it shuts PSD's off when you try to link to them while they are running. My buddy has a solus as well so I'm going to borrow it and see what's going on. I think he might have a PCM going bad. I have 2 her to try on his truck.

 

[BigRigTech]

Test drove it tonight - hard to start cold - lots of smoke but no bang. Had 4 faults, 1280, 1211, 0113, 0603...Cleaned all the corroded battery cables, fender solenoid and etc - it fired up. Cleared the faults, once it was hot it set the 1280 and 1211 codes under hard throttle. The truck hauls like a ***** ape other than the fault codes but it won't start hot. It made me realize how ****** my PSD runs.......No I won't sleep until I correct that...

 

[BigRigTech]

All fixed, I replaced the IPR and it works much better now. I also fired in 8 new Motorcraft GP's for the owner...I noticed the Beru label said "made in Ireland"....