oldster

Thurs nite, coming home on the hiway, I smelled a lil odd smell---kinda like burnt leaves and kinda electrical....not heavy in either...just a lil whiff.
THEN
I started the '77 f150, 302, to warm a few mins, at 430am, as usual on Fri morn.
Came out and the cab was full of tan/brown smoke and some/few sparks were coming from underneath the dash...about center of the truck.

Turned it off, opened both doors, disconnected the POS battery post.

Looked under there today...finally had time and light.

Even with a flashlight, I could find NO burnt wires or anything suspicious.

We installed a cig lighter to charge phones with this past summer, and a few days ago, while charging my girls phone, it was sparking around the ring where it attaches to the dash...This truck had the port and knock-out for the lighter...its hot-fused wire comes from the left side behind the pkg brake and NO sparks were coming from there when the incident happened.

NOW, with the battery hooked back up, NOTHING HAPPENS, when you turn the key to ACC or to try and start engine....no click or no sparks or no power getting to the starter...the dome light DOES come on when doors open.

All ideas on where to start figuring this out are GREATLY appreciated.

raisin

Check fuses. A bad fuse points to circuit that shorting. After changing bad fuse be ready to pull battery cable again when it smokes. If you need help report back.

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a burned fusible link.

oldster

Well, the fuses in the fuse box look fine, are there others NOT in that lil box I should inspect?

oldster

And where would I find some of them?

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure where they are on a '77. Follow the battery positive cable, they should be on the other end. Most likely the starter but there may be a junction block with some on it.

chris e

ck to see if the air intake for heater is full of leaves . saw this happen on a friends f150 there is a blower resistor in there and if leaves etc rest on it there will be lots of smoke . probably have to remove intake grill in front of windshield to clean , just look in there first

oldster

I will check for leaves Chris, but that doesn't 'splain juice not getting anywhere.

oldster

UPDATE.....NOW, when key is turned the solenoid (I think) clunks...its the round part with flat ends that the RED battery cable connects to on the way to the starter.

Would that fuseable link be on the wire to the starter?

How could sparks from the dash get back up there?

oldster

UPDATE #2---My buddy came over and tapped on the solenoid while I turned the key and VOILA !....fired right up.
He took the fan blower ducting out and indeed found a singed leaf.
The SPARKING was from the cig lighter arcing since it had come loose since its July installation.


It starts and runs fine now.

Soooo, should I buy a new solenoid? or will it last awhile longer? It was NEW 3 YRS AGO.