No ABS motor, turn signals, vmm, or climate control????

Ok last night my girlfriend went to take the SC to go to the store. She tells me to come outside and look at it since the brake pedal is hard as a rock, and the heater blower motor isn't working. I go outside and turn the car off, start it up and the brakes work, and the fan blows. Weird.

This morning I go to run to the bank and it's working fine. I left it running while I ran inside the bank for about 5 minutes. I come out and get in the car and the BRAKE and ABS lights are both on, and the fan isn't working although I have the heater turned on. I notice as carefully driving home that my turn signals arnen't working, and my VMM monitor above the radio is also not powered up.

I replaced the pressure switch for the ABS motor last year. I also have brake lights, and my radio works but it's been rewired to the battery and a switched remote turn on source since when I bought the car someone literally hacked the radio wires up.

I've had this thing for 6 years and the wiring has been fine, only problem I've ever had was needing to rewire the radio when I first bought it.

So I wonder what these items all have in common? A fuse? A common ground, a relay? I can't really drive the car with no turn signals, brakes, or heat. If it was a fuse why is it that it worked for me this morning?

I shut the car off and restarted it, and the brakes pressurized until I hit the pedal, but the vmm and heater still aren't working. And the turn signals aren't working. Luckily the parking lights, head lights, and brake lights all work.

I'm getting sick of this car. If I can't figure this out, I'm tempted to get another car.

Ignition switch?

Nick

Possible, but then wouldn't the radio die? It's wired to a switched source. One wire for the constant hot goes directly to my battery. The switched wire comes from the switch. When I bought the car the factory harness was hacked off and the constant hot wire was no where to be found so I ran a new one right from the battery through the firewall to the radio.

I'm going to go look at fuses but I doubt it's a fuse because it wouldn't heal itself

The ingnition switch in the car is only like 2 years old. I don't remember why I changed it, but I did. I have a vivid memory of the steering shaft laying on my lap while I replaced it. I think thats why I bought a set of tamper proof torx bits.

Well I just went and bought a new ignition switch because thats the only thing I can think of that ties all those circuits together to give them power.

I didn't check to see if the reverse lights work because they would also be switched with the key, but I took the bulbs out of them and can't seem to find where I put them.

Thanks for the suggestion Nick M!

The ignition switch was the culprit. It was coming apart at the front end where the metal and plastic crimp onto each other.

I knew I bought that T-27 tamper proof torx socket for a certain reason. I couldn't find my TBird/Cougar repair manual, but it was pretty simple.

Take the lower dash panel off, I don't have the metal plate behind it anymore, took it out for weight savings. Then you loosen four 13mm nuts that hold the steering shaft up to the dash, then remove 3 philips head screws out of the steering column plastic covers, and remove the trim ring just behind the steering wheel. Viola. Two tamper proof torx bolts hold the switch to the steering column, and then remove the electrical harness.

It was pretty easy. Took me about 20 minutes to swap out and now its a lot harder to turn the key, much tighter feel.

I pulled it into the garage and tried moving the key slightly and the heater and vmm would die and come back on. So if anyone else has similar problems with their SC, check the ignition switch. I got one at Auto Zone for $10.99 and the part number is LS514. It's a normal stock item at Auto Zone.

Glad that fixed it for ya.

Nick

same problem with VMM

I have that same exact problem with my 92 SC. It got pretty annoying starting the car, because then i had to turn the key backwards towards the off position and if i got it in just the exact spot the VMM would kick on. Turn too far and the car shuts off, re-start, kill it, restart it until i found the spot.(kinda embarasing when in a parking lot full of ppl too lol) anyhoo, ive replaced the key and tumbler twice. This ignition switch u said solved yer problem...wher is this? inside of column? its not the part u put the key into to start im assuming then? plz post back..u have no idea how bad i wanna fix this problem!

It's not the key and tumbler, but it's called the ignition switch. It's what the tumbler hooks to and when you turn the key it moves a rod on this switch that sends the power to the accessories.

It's a very simple fix if you can take the bottom dash piece off by your knees. It's 3 8mm bolts on the bottom. You will need a T-27 tamper proof torx (has a hole in the center of the star bit) to get the two bolts out of the switch itself. You need to take the plastic cover off the steering column, there are 3 screws you get from the bottom with a phillips head. Also you need to lower the steering shaft a bit, there's one or two cross members that hold it up each has a bolt on either side. You just loosen the nuts and let the steering column lower into your lap.

You can get the part at any parts store. The part number I listed was for Auto Zone.

See if this link works:
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiB...~Ford|~Thunderbird|~1990|~NONE|~0.25|~NONE|~B

ignition switch

okay i think i found it. Like a gray metal box with a white wire harness attached at the bottom? I couldnt get the wire harness off, but i did notice that it isnt flush with that box all the way across. one side kinda sags down and dosnt olook like its making contact.

yeah that's it, I think once I got it unbolted from the column I had to use a small flat head to get the harness off.

If you are hard up for cash, you can try pounding the metal "clips" a little tighter so they really hold the plastic part in the proper place. Someone reported that worked for them. ($11 is not a lot, but even so...)

S_Mazza said:

If you are hard up for cash, you can try pounding the metal "clips" a little tighter so they really hold the plastic part in the proper place. Someone reported that worked for them. ($11 is not a lot, but even so...)

Click to expand...

Yea, that will work for a while ... but in a couple months you'll be doing it all over again.

Hate to hijak here, but.... When my car was delivered to me the shipper could not figure out how to get the key out of the car (button on the bottom). I suspect that this is when the ignition part was damaged, but can't be sure (key was bent when I pulled it out by pressing the release button). The problem I have is the metal outer ring that the key sets down into spins indepenadnt of the key itself. What do I need to fix this?? Do I need a new tumbler, and if so how do I key it to my existing key, or do I need to also replace the door locks at the same time??

New tumbler comes with a new ignition key. On my 90 the doors and ignition match, on my 92 they don't. It's not that big of a deal if you have a key chain or an alarm w/ keyless entry.

Warning

DO NOT mess around with bad ignition switches. A bad switch can burn your car to the ground. This was a Ford recall in 1990. I had a new LX at the time, and took it back in for the replacement.

My '90 XR7 is living proof of what can happen if you ignore a bad switch. The original owner blew off the recall letter from Ford, and the car caught fire, and nearly burned to the ground. The only thing that saved it was the windows and moonroof were closed up tight; it snuffed itself out due to lack of oxygen. But, not before it cooked the column, steering wheel, gauge cluster, cluster bezel, dash cover, left and right vent panels, dash and column wiring, carpeting (below column), A-piller trim, auto-belt buckle, windshield, sun visors, moonroof switch, sun shade, headliner, and a BUNCH of other misc. trim and switches.

This happened in '97 with 30K miles on the clock. The up-side is I got to buy it a year ago and restore the interior. Now I have a 30K mile XR7. But, it was very nearly toast; most were. In the height of irony, I found the recall letter in the car when I gutted and cleaned it.

Moral, if you even THINK your ignition switch is causing trouble, don't try and fix it, replace it ASAP. It's cheaper than having your car burn.

My $0.02

JD

Good point.

That is real irony right there.

A1cntrler said:

Hate to hijak here, but.... When my car was delivered to me the shipper could not figure out how to get the key out of the car (button on the bottom). I suspect that this is when the ignition part was damaged, but can't be sure (key was bent when I pulled it out by pressing the release button). The problem I have is the metal outer ring that the key sets down into spins indepenadnt of the key itself. What do I need to fix this?? Do I need a new tumbler, and if so how do I key it to my existing key, or do I need to also replace the door locks at the same time??

Click to expand...

Buy a replacement tumbler and take it to a locksmith to have it rekeyed to the original key. Will cost about 15 bucks + new tumbler. Worth it if you don't want 3 different keys

Ignition switch was the first thing I thought of when I read the title... I lost my brakes on the way to work because of that turd.

Glad you got it fixed!