Ok, I am posting a new thread since the old one kind of died.

I am working on a 1997 Ford E350 club wagon van. It has a regular gas 5.4 V8.

When the owner asked me to fix it, he said the fuel pump was caput. I assumed he had it tested, so I dropped the tank & replaced it, the pickup screen & fuel filter. No starty!

I replaced the battery with a new one with 950cca - brand new battery.

Today, I replaced the neutral start safety switch.

Now it will crank in park AND in neutral, but will not run without starter fluid being sprayed in past the air filter.

I even smelled a bit of gas, and it did crank and start for a few seconds without starter fluid, but that may have been residual starter fluid burning off. It made a large cloud of smoke for the half minute that it did run.

The owner had very little oil in it, I had to add at least 3 quarts. The oil warning light is now off.

I noticed that when it's cranking over, it turns several times very well, then several times with less vibration, then repeats this as it cranks.

I have tried to read codes numerous times, but no trouble codes are coming up.

I hate guessing and throwing parts that won't get it running at it, but that is what it's come to. The NSSS was definitely bad, the battery tested bad & the fuel pump after being removed would make a locked humming sound without spinning after connecting it to a cordless drill battery. So, I know all those things were bad, but replacing them is STILL not allowing it to start.

When starting it with starting fluid, if the gas pedal was pushed down, it would die out.

I have a common volt/ohm meter & basic code scanner and regular hand tools.

If there are any specific tests you guys know of that I can do - removing connector for this or that & measuring voltage or resistance between specific terminals for instance, that would be very helpful.

Any help would be useful. It is not mine, it belongs to a local preacher friend of mine & he's been unable to drive it for over a month now.

Thanks for reading.

 

When you first turn the key on can you hear the fuel pump run for the 1-2 seconds ?

 

No, but I eventually smell a bit of gas.

 

I also checked at the fuse with a volt meter, no power there.

 

If the questions I ask seem dumb, it is because I don't know what info you have to work with. Do you have the owner's manual available to use for reference? Yes-no

 

Yes I do.

 

Good! In the book you can find pictures and descriptions of the fuses and relays. Look for the relay that is for the fuel pump. Let me know when you find it and we can go from there.

 

Today was fun. I removed & cleaned all ground wires connections big and small. Hooked up a noid light and it flashed like it should. I noticed when I connected a jumper from 30-87 for the fuel pump relay, noting happened as it should. I disconnected the lead to the pump on the frame rail next to the tank and found 1 of 4 prong had snapped off! The owner is ordering a new pigtail harness for it in a few days. I have very little doubt that will fix it. I will post the results next week. Thanks for all the advice!

 

Last update on this thread. It is fixed! The broken prong in the molex leading to the fuel pump was the issue. I put a jumper wire around the molex with heat shrink tubing and it cranked right up. Thanks for all the input guys!

 

Glad you found and corrected the problem and sharing the fix with us. I never heard of a molex connector before , thank you for bringing me up to speed with that !