1999 4.6L has 45ma draw on fuse 15 in the cab. Battery at 13.7V off...14.7V running. Pulled fuse box and no sign of corrosion or water intrusion anywhere but symptoms include: intermittent odometer reading...no dashes-occasionally no power windows...frequent no-start until jumped or sometimes on the 3rd or fourth crank-occasionally no radio. The idle surges up and down fairly evenly but the truck runs smoothly. The wipers have been sporadically coming on recently but I have a new switch coming.
I tried pulling the connector to the servo motor for the cruise control and this did not affect the drain, also the brake light switch was disconnected but did not affect the draw either.
I am not sure where to look next and I am hoping an experienced sleuth will offer advice before I start throwing more money and time at it-thank you for taking your time to read this.

 

This probably won't help but ive heard the wiring for the over drive switch routes on the steering column and it sits right near/on the gear selector pivot point area and its known to rub through the insulation and cause issues with cruise control horn and a multitude of other things. Just a thought not too hard to get too gotta remove some dash paneling and steering column paneling... I am new to these trucks my self only had it 4 months I am looking into replacing my shifter and O/D switch my self as mine switch wiring is broken.
I have been having Issues with my truck sometimes over bumps my truck will cut out completely like loses spark for a split second also my air conditioning will turn itself on randomly seemingly when I hit a bump... also my driver side master power window switch went out and my rear passenger window would only roll down not up I got a replacement switch for that and it fixed the issue with the window rolling up.

 

Easy fix for the overdrive button. You might just need to splice in some new wire,..... But it's amazing how shorted out and burn up it gets without people knowing...... And without blowing the fuse (small wire )

 

I have found the easiest way to find electrical problems is to just follow the process. You can drive yourself crazy trying to find what other people had issues with and trying to replace parts. You have isolated the fuse already. now just follow the wires to their end. one by one until you find the offending part. could be the wire, it could be a switch or module. But anyway besides simply following a process will be chaos and you will missing things and go in circles.

 

Did you wait the required module timeout interval (40 minutes) before making your check for parasitic draw? If you did not, the test will always fail due to improper testing procedure.

 

yes-well over an hour but good to know

 

I only have 100k on this truck-bought a city gov problem-and the wiring on the column is not worn-if you are replacing the shifter and wiring I would make sure the snap-in grommets to protect the wiring are in place when you route that wire-good luck and thank you

 

Just to make sure there's no mistaking the process...

If you touch ANYTHING that causes a change in current from the battery thru the GEM, the timer resets. Opening doors, activating switches, connecting/disconnecting batteries, turning on the ignition are all examples of this concern.

In any event, the Ford manual allows for up to 50 mA quiescent current draw. Don't get fixated on trying to solve something that may not be an actual problem.

Reviewing the list of symptoms you gave, you have more important stuff to fix. The PATS system is getting triggered by a failure of the instrument cluster and the PCM to power up together properly. Usual cause is a failing PCM Power relay.

 

excellent-thank you so much-I was dreading the chase

 

Who amongst us haven't had a instrument CLUSTER issue at some point. There's been WAY too many of them, myself included.
It's a KNOWN problem and you probably have the same. I would REMOVE the cluster and send to a repair shop and let THEM fix the soldering issues and anything else. Not that expensive and it may fix all the problems.
Don't be tempted to fix it yourself.