well i figured it out. i did change the stoplight switch, but did nothing and i changed the flasher relay and did nothing... then it dawned on me to check the fuse.. it was blown. so i changed it, and everything works now!

 

The fuse... You'd think by now that at least one of us around here would have slowed down and thought about that before changing other parts. I guess the good news is that it's working again!

 

My understanding is that the switch is attached to the brake master cylinder. The switch senses the pulse in the fluid when you step on the brake pedal. This pulse tells the switch to disengage the cruise control. The reason there was a recall is that the switch is in direct contact with the brake fluid. The switch wears out and can cause a short that ignites the brake fluid, thus causing a fire.

I could be wrong, but I do believe my description is basically accurate.

 

That is part of the problem the other part is that Ford did not place a fuse in this circuit resulting in fried wires and fires. The first recall added a fusible link to the circuit, the second recall replaced the fusible link from the first with another on the hot wire instead of the signal wire. The signal wire is hot until the switch reads pressure and then is cold.