electrical short

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Mike Sove

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Had my ST in 4hi, playing in the snow and all of a sudden i lost all electrical in the cab. no locks, radio, gauges, windows...nothin.. i still have illumination lights, and wipers. with the key in the acc position everything works fine. however dome light is completely gone all the time i noticed, yet i have not one single blown fuse, anywhere.. and im not throwing any codes. i have a burnt electrical smell in the cab as well. anybody had this happen? i could be chasing relays and grounds for months at this rate... btw i pulled the battery and alternator. and had both checked. battery was a bit sketchy so i replaced it but the alt checked out fine on the tester.
 
You mentioned "playing in the snow". Check the braided frame ground strap under the truck. Just guessing, but easy to check. GL
 
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ill check that in a few minutes thanks guys.. as an update, after my original post, i disconnected the battery while the truck was running and got a humming/vibrating style sound from the front driver corner and the engine idled rough.
 
mike,1/5/2014 14:24 MT



i disconnected the battery while the truck was running and got a humming/vibrating style sound from the front driver corner and the engine idled rough.



Don't ever do this agian as you can cause a voltage spike and really mess up alot of things. Electrical shorts are hard enough to track down let alone tyring to do it over the internet all I can say is good luck.
 
i found one cab to frame ground under the driver door area. doing my best in this horrible snow storm i cant for the life of me find the engine to frame ground strap.. i crawled all over in the snow looking lol. as im typing this i cant help but think ive seeen a ground strap atop the engine to the firewall... yea? anyone? this sucks.. lol
 
ok, replaced the cab to frame ground strap. still no go.. i did locate the burnt smell..i recently installed two very bright LED lights for my dome lights.. they were completely melted, and the housing was a little discolored from the smoke. no melted wires to or from the dome lights, headlight switch is fine, wires, harness.... took every dash panel off, steering column covers, no melted or burnt wires, no bad fuses still... somebody help me im losing my mind, my hair, and feeling in my feet and hands, its -7 with a wind chill of -40... side note, i do have marker lights turn signals and brake lights...but no headlights or fog lights, and when i attempt to turn on my fogs, my "brights" indicator light on the gauge cluster comes on... although the brights "on/off" arm on the column is in the off position.. im so confused at this point i dont know what to do next..thanks guys.
 
I doubt there's any correlation here, but easy to check. You mentioned already finding the burnt smell and removing the steering column cover. IF you have a tilt steering

column, try moving it all the way UP. The multi function switch (MFS) has known issues with these trucks because the connector binds and shorts. Can't hurt, try it. GL
 
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local performance shop owner i trust very much has suggested "GEM" (sp) module.. but i cant seem to locate mine behind the dash.. anyone know where its at?
 
On the ST it's called a Central Security Module and is located behind and above the glove box. You will need a Ford scan tool to configure the module.
 
ok great thanks buddy. ya the performacne shop is getting me the unit for $170 from a dealer and reprogramming it for me. i will update once its done, it takes a couple days to get the part.
 
partial update, we didnt order the GEM yet.. got it all hooked up at the shop w the ford scan tool and a couple other monitoring devices and starting tracking down all the issues created by this "problem". got the truck to finally start reporting back to the scan tool and found while the engine is running, the charging voltage is pegged at 16.. with the truck running, and the heater on high, everything works now makes sense.. your alternator does not charge under 1000rpms.and w the draw of the heater everything comes back to life.. its the GEM saving the truck.. when it recognizes the voltage jump it shuts downs saving all the low amp electronics. genuis!!! so ive got a voltage regulator coming directy from motorcraft monday morning.. ill update ya'll tomorrow evening. eventually i may do some sort of tech write up on this issue.. hopefully i can save some people a bunch of money.
 
mikelem solved..alternator. sseriously... lol voltage regulator WAS in fact shot, but the armature was just as damaged as the regulator brushes so for $112 i picked up a new lifetime warranty alternator. got it in, and boom good to go. now i jsut have to replace my headlight and fog light bulbs.
 
Had my ST in 4hi, playing in the snow and all of a sudden i lost all electrical in the cab. no locks, radio, gauges, windows...nothin.. i still have illumination lights, and wipers. with the key in the acc position everything works fine. however dome light is completely gone all the time i noticed, yet i have not one single blown fuse, anywhere.. and im not throwing any codes. i have a burnt electrical smell in the cab as well. anybody had this happen? i could be chasing relays and grounds for months at this rate... btw i pulled the battery and alternator. and had both checked. battery was a bit sketchy so i replaced it but the alt checked out fine on the tester.
So where was the electrical smell coming from? I’m having the same problem
 
pl
So where was the electrical smell coming from? I’m having the same problem

please try to avoid reviving old threads. this was from 2014. he says right above your post that his alternator was his issue sending to high of current to the GEM/SJB forcing it into safe mode cutting power to low voltage devices typically an B106E DTC code
 
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