rebelrider

Thank you for following and for all the help! I really appreciate it. This morning I found that I lost my ignition power to the relay I wired in for charging. I was pulling that off the ac compressor. I do not know why that no longer has power. Lol. I ran a new ignition wire from my fuse panel and now I’m back to charging. 100 miles and a chord of wood today and everything seemed ok.

as for the fss. Man I’m really not sure. It started fine today probably 100 times moving around and rigging trees. Not even a hiccup. I literally did nothing but mess with it push the lever up and back down. I’m on my third fss now. Original one gave out. Then I had an aftermarket one go out they sent me another and that is what I’m running now. My truck is a manual so for last few months I’ve just had it zip tied up and dump the clutch when I want my truck to turn off. With a bit of time on my hands I’ve been trying to get this thing fixed actually correctly.

texasprd

I can see multiple failure point possibilities powering that relay off the AC compressor wire. lol If I recall correctly, the PCM controls compressor engagement - I can't remember offhand if that's on the ground side or the power side. Check the wiring diagrams in the FSM or follow the ground wiring to see. Besides possible PCM control, there is the path from whatever fuse it's going through. Dodge powered some things through fuses where the fuse description wouldn't lead you to think of the fuse in question.

There are two versions of the aftermarket FSS - there is a large-diameter (which I think matches the OE) and a small diameter. I prefer the large diameter - no scientific reasoning for that, just a gut feeling that bigger doesn't have to work as hard. One thing that I have been told is important for FSS life is proper adjustment. You want the fuel control arm to be opened as far as possible just as the FSS plunger is pulled all the way up inside the coil. I've been told (in different ways by three people with different, but relevant, backgrounds regarding electromechanical controls) that the plunger generally needs to be as high up as it can go for max hold-coil life. Every time the FSS that has failed on me, it's been the hold-coil that failed.

gorms

You need to dig into that truck with a good test light and multimeter. There are free wiring diagrams available, takes time to decifer them but you need to start at the beginning, fuse box to ignition switch, then out to all points.

FSS's are pretty rugged, i have the original in my 98 with 325k miles on it. You being on #3 is a red flag to me.

Again, I would start with the big mess of grounds under drivers side battery, it may look ok but I guarantee the wires are brittle and corroded near the eyelet they are crimped in. One bad ground can cause an overload down the line without blowing fuses.

On my 98 I found a chaffed wire loom right against the ABS bracket/inner fender of drivers side right near the fuse box. Caused charging issues and intermittent starting/fuel gauge issues.

Fordzilla

That was underlined for this old retired mechanic recently when I found a hardened, corroded ground in my foglight circuit after I had spent money on another filament...At least I have a spare sealed beam now......Ben

rebelrider

I’m not positive the second fss was actually flawed. Given my wiring gremlins im dealing with there is a pretty good chance I replaced a good part. It was a cheap fss off eBay so I assumed it was junk. Through out all of my messing around I changed so many things at once I didn’t do a great job of ruling out the underlying cause when things started working again. When I have time I’ll swap back to that old fss just for ***** and grins to see if it works still. I had no idea that the adjustment mattered to them I just slapped it in there as it came. The fuse is good to the ac and I swapped relays and still didn’t get power to it. My ac needs recharged anyways it hasn’t actually blown cold in ten years lol. I appreciate all the reply’s and info. As it sits now I got a half tank of fuel through it stop go a lot and it only wouldn’t start that one time. Everything seems to be working as should except the illum fuse not getting power which only controls my front dome lights and the compass as near as I can tell. I will rip into the grounds under the drivers batter to be sure. All the major grounds look good and the ones that aren’t to terrible to get to I took apart and cleaned connections.

Fordzilla

Adding redundant grounds won't hurt a thing either......Ben