88 F250 tired of my busted ignition switch
dan fitz
04-23-2013, 09:56 PM
have been messing around with a sticky switch for awhile, sometimes it wouldn't return from starter engagement, had a few folks borrowing the truck burn up my starter ("it was making this awful noise the whole time..."). made some adjustments to the switch on the column and usually that fixed it. one cold morning in february, about 4 degrees, i turned the key and felt a pop and it wouldn't start. fortunately i had left one of the pieces of cowling off so i could grab the rod that goes from key to switch down the column and started it with a pair of pliers. that's been fine for a couple months, keeps folks from borrowing my truck!. finally took the wheel off again to see what was up and found broken pieces of the rube goldberg mechanism that ford created to go from key rotation to linear movement of the rod. beyond getting a used column from a junkyard, i'd like to instead try bypassing the key and put in a dashboard switch or something like that; my haynes manual has no diagram of which wires on the switch go to what so i could use some advice or links to a useful wiring diagram. today was the final straw, i went to start it and it stuck in start and i couldn't get it to shut off- engine would go off but the starter would keep turning it and the battery died before i could get the hood up. any help appreciated!
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