ignition switch November 28, 2015, 12:14:07 AM I really need to add relays or something to this ignition switch.When I bought the car, the guage cluster didn't work and the key was really loose. I've been down that road many times and decided it was the ignition switch and picked one up one my way home, when I bought the car.When I took off the column cover I found a broken wire, looked like it had been pinched. I put a splice in it and the dash lit up. Since I already had it apart I replaced the ignition switch and forgot about it. Well, today my dash lights, heater and turn signals all went out. I got the car home, ripped it apart and at first everything looked fine.I pulled the ignition switch plug and found one wire must have not been making good contact and melted the plug, as well as all the insulation on two more wires. I ended up cuting the plug up since it was melted so bad and wouldn't go back in, and gutted the slot for one wire and just plugged it directly to the slot and repaired the other wires and reassembled the switch after a quick check and put it all back together.When I backed the car out of the garage right after, again both the heater and dash lights died, although the turn signals still functioned. After ripping it back apart, it was actually the ignition switch itself that died. It was shorting out internally, verified with a volt meter. If you jiggled the key a bit, the car would even randomly die.Luckily I still had the switch the car came with. There is zero play in the switch at all and feels really tight. You'd think a new replacement switch would be in better shape then the original Ford switch. The py replacement switch could have burned the car to the ground and only lasted about 30k miles. Quote Selected
ignition switch Reply #1 – November 28, 2015, 08:33:26 AM Quote from: Haystack;452617When I backed the car out of the garage right after, again both the heater and dash lights died, although the turn signals still functioned. After ripping it back apart, it was actually the ignition switch itself that died. It was shorting out internally, verified with a volt meter. If you jiggled the key a bit, the car would even randomly die.No it has a intermittent poor/high resistance connection that caused overheating... With the high current available at a ign switch, a short will produce instant smoke(and very possibly fire)... The contacts in these switches are barely adequate when new, toss in dirt and wear, they'll overheat... The ign switch is one part in these cars I'll use only a Ford replacement... Quote Selected
ignition switch Reply #2 – December 02, 2015, 11:13:25 AM leme know when your ready to slave relay things out.pay attention to how ford made it appear you have two yellow wires at your ign sw... sneak deeper up the harness and you find the splice.,, and the home run wire out to the engine is the same size. you should only need to slave the yellow then the black / org to take heat off of things in there. Quote Selected
ignition switch Reply #3 – December 02, 2015, 09:28:39 PM Yup, it had actually melted at that splice and further up at the pin. I spliced the two wires back together as a temp fix.When i get some money and a nice warm day, ill cut a whole harness out of a junkyard car if i can find one in good shape and add relays then. The old plug was melted around that yellow wire so bad i had to cut up the plastic and stick it in separately right on the pin. I ziptied it and made sure it won't hit anything, but its a temp fix at best. Quote Selected
ignition switch Reply #4 – December 02, 2015, 09:40:11 PM Quote from: Haystack;452750Yup, it had actually melted at that splice and further up at the pin. I spliced the two wires back together as a temp fix.When i get some money and a nice warm day, ill cut a whole harness out of a junkyard car if i can find one in good shape and add relays then. The old plug was melted around that yellow wire so bad i had to cut up the plastic and stick it in separately right on the pin. I ziptied it and made sure it won't hit anything, but its a temp fix at best.Add a fan from a computer P/S or CPU to cool the connector... :hick: Quote Selected
ignition switch Reply #5 – December 02, 2015, 09:42:59 PM I was trying to figure out a way to integrate duct tape into the fix. Quote Selected
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