Hello!

1988 Ford F-150
80,000 Miles
Automatic
302 Fuel Injected

Here is the situation:

The truck only starts if the solenoid wire is pulled off and I jump it with a screwdriver but won't go into reverse or drive without immediately cutting off.

 

Thats weird.... Sounds like a Neutral safety switch on the starting thing, but I don't know about the stalling....hmmmm

 

If you could think it over and maybe an answer will come to you that would be GREAT!!! Anything helps, I'm at my wits end with this thing!

 

Is it possible to have a seized tranny. Can you put it in Neutral and get it to still run.?? Just a wild guess but that is a weird problem.

 

It seems to disengage the fuel injection when i put it into gear. Neutral or Park and it stays running.

 

Does it feel like popping a clutch in a manual vehicle when it cuts off? If so then its a bad Torq Convertor. If it just shuts down then I would start looking at the wiring and shaking it while in park to see if the truck cuts off.

 

I checked the whole wiring harness and took out an old alarm system that was attached and made sure the wires had no kinks or cuts in them. I know for sure the solendoid is bad so I bought one to replace with it today. Just for good measure Ill shake the wiring in Park to see what happens. Ill look up on the torq converter today though.

 

My 89 f150 did kinda the same thing when i bought it ,it would run perfectly untill i put it in gear, i ended up taking it to a shop and they said it was my fuel pumps
(intank and under driver floorboards.) it cost me about $700 for the parts and labor, ill never do that again!

 

I agree with NGM. Bad torque converter. I had the same problem with a Fiero. Thats why when you unplug the Torque converter solenoid it runs. The torque converter is overheating and the solenoid is what is protecting the transmission from being destroyed from the overheating. When you unplug the solenoid you are bypassing the protection. You can do this in the short term but be "forewarned" permanent damage to your tranny is emminent if you don't take care of it.

Jim.

 

what cause a f-150 to stall when put into drive gear