Ford F150 wiring harness cut tranny problems

Hi guys. Just had a strange one happen late this afternoon. Had a sprayer loaded in the back of my 2000 ford f150 and have been spraying the pasture this weekend. Driving along in 4x4 low range to go slow and drove over a tree limb or something in the grass, heard a couple bumps, then it went a few for feet and died. Tried to start it and it acted like it wasn't getting any gas. Thought I damaged the fuel line but didn't smell any fuel. Grass was too high to look under. Got the tractor and pulled it up by the barn. Wife had it in neutral.

Looked underneath, cleared out the brush, and fuel line was ok. Looked further and outside the frame on the driver side there is an exposed wiring harness along the frame rail. Between the front wheel and the door the frame rail has a U channel frame mount. Well something drove that wiring harness into the U channel.

Pulled the cover off, and found 22 wires, 9 cut in two, 5 smashed, and 8 were bent but seemed ok. I bet 2 of them went to the fuel pump.

Luckily I had a box of butt connectors. Between rain storms and using a trouble light, I put in the 14 butt connectors.

Reconnected the battery and it started right up. However the overdrive off light on the shifter was flashing off and no matter how many times I tried the button, the off sign kept flashing off. Shifted into 2wd high. Put it into drive and it didn't really want to go and the engine was bogging down and didn't act like the torque converter was barely engaging. Same for reverse. Shifted into 4wd high and same thing for forward and reverse. Shift into 4wd low and it will drive around in forward and reverse with all the power and torque I want and I definitely feel the torque converter kick in when I shift gears.

Anybody got any ideas? I left it out at the farm and will go check it tomorrow night. Guess I'll check all my butt connections for continuity, double check that I got the color coded wires right but I'm sure I did that, and them maybe cut the other 8 wires where they were bent a little and install butt connectors there. Guess I'll look over the tranny for any other loose wires. I just left it an hour ago but it just occured to me that I probably should check all the breakers under the hood as well.

Thanks.

Try your question here. These folks are usually pretty helpful.

Dave

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum25/

That light that is blinking is giving you a code. If it blinks 4 times then pauses and blinks 3 times this is code 43. I'm just using these two numbers as an example. Once you have the code call your ford dealer and they can tell you what's wrong. sometimes when wires get smashed like that they get pulled and stretched some where else other than where they were struck at. I bet you have a wire up or back farther in the harness that is sretched until it broke and the insulation is still intack making the broken wire unvisible.

There should be two sets of wires going to your transmission. One set controls the solenoid body which has solenoid valves for shift sequence, pressure control and converter clutch. The other set of wires goes to the MLPS or Manual lever positon switch and it tells your PCM powertrain control module which gear the transmission selector lever is in. Check to see if the manual lever position sensor switch wiring and switch are still intact. If the lever is in drive and the switch is signaling that it is some other gear that will cause those symptoms. Sometimes when those switches get old and corroded they do the same thing.

1) Throw the butt connectors away as they are nothing but trouble. Use solder and heat shrink for a professional job or at least tape. 2) After soldering the breaks that you see, check all wires for continuity as there may be unseen breaks inside the vinyl covering.

I have to agree with Tom. Either use solder and heat shrink or at the very least, use heat shrink butt connectors. Even if you get all the wires back together right, moisture is gonna cause problems down the road. I can"t count how many times I have had to pull out butt connectors, and cut the wiring back several inches to get rid of all the corroded stuff.

With that many broken, messed up wires your gonna probably need a wiring diagram so you can pin out each wire from the downstream connector, find where that wire is at the computer and back probe it. Chances are that you still have a couple bad wires, or have a couple crossed. Going by color alone is tough. Green with a yellow stripe looks like green with a tan stripe, etc..

The OD light flashing does indicate a code stored on the powertrain side, not necessarily just the trans. With a 2000 you"ll have to put a scan tool on it, counting the flashes won"t work. It"s probably a good place to start, but I"d put money on the wiring being the problem. Although, finding out the code, could tell you what circuit to chase. Good luck BW

Well I got it going tonight. Found a 15 amp fuse in the front of the fuse box in the engine compartment blown. Don't have my book so I'm not sure what it was. The wiring harness didn't go to the tranny. Just the fuel tank, fuel pump (I assume the pump is up above the rear end), the rear end, and then the tail lights. Have a check engine light now so I'll get that checked out tomorrow.

Still have to find a way to get some water proof connections. Last thing I want is to be driving down the interstate in bumscrew KS late at night in a driving rain storm and lose my fuel pump.

Thanks.