dollargriffin93

I have a 1989 F150 that is a project for me and a friend. I charged the battery and attempted to crank the truck. I noticed that when I turned the key, none of the lights or anything came on (except for the dome light when the door was open). No radio, no AC, no buzzer or cluster lights. I banged the steering wheel and the buzzer came on, but still no signs of life anywhere else. the truck turns over and cranks well, but wont start at all. After a few times of fooling around with it, the buzzer won't come on at all. Any suggestions? I'm thinking its a problem with the ignition.

BareBonesXL

Add more detail. How long has the truck been sitting? Why was it not running? Why was the battery dead? Stuff like that. Could be it was running fine and just died, or that you and your friend found it out in the desert. Different scenarios.

Crank = turn over

Steve83

If the CEL doesn't come on, then the EEC isn't powering up, and the engine will never run (injectors won't open). The most-likely cause is the crappy factory-style relays, which are cheap & easy to replace with the later Bosch/ISO/Tyco style, as this & the NEXT few captions explain:


(phone app link)

There are 2 "engine" lights on that truck, so make sure you're looking at the correct one, as this caption explains:

dollargriffin93

So I disassembled the ignition switch to where I could get to the ignition actuator. I pressed it in about 3/4 of the way and the buzzer came on. The check engine light and the battery light came on and the gauges worked (unfortunately couldnt start because of dead battery) but after doing that 2 times the actuator no longer works at a.. Truck won't even turn over. I think i broke something. Oops....

Steve83

The actuators are not inside the ignition switch - they're in the steering column. This shows a tilt column:


(phone app link)

The last link in the caption shows how to test the ig.sw. The PREVious one shows all 4 columns.