What's new

7.3 thread continued?

Having some issues with my 96 7.3 stalling when coasting/coming to a stop.It sat for 6 months and drove fine for an hour or so then started this stalling shit. Fresh fuel filter & fuel. Rebuilt IPR first did nothing so i replaced it and ICP with OEM motorcraft and no change. Fuel pressure is 55psi at idle. Thinking maybe CPS? I replaced cps a while back for stalling issues but it would do it randomly at any rpm then.

Only diagnostic tool i have for it is torque/bt obd2 scanner and that leaves much to be desired.
Does it restart right back up? Or have to sit a while? What happens once it dies?

My first guess would be cps.
 
Does it restart right back up? Or have to sit a while? What happens once it dies?

My first guess would be cps.
Starts back up with a flick of the key, only 1-2 times has it taken more than that but it always fires back up. Originally thought IPR because the hpop pressures were all over the board and just tossed a icp at it because its easy to get to. worst case i get some spares to throw in the glove box.
 
Starts back up with a flick of the key, only 1-2 times has it taken more than that but it always fires back up. Originally thought IPR because the hpop pressures were all over the board and just tossed a icp at it because its easy to get to. worst case i get some spares to throw in the glove box.
I think the CPS is what I would throw at it first.
 
New motorcraft CPS didn't change anything. I'm stumped because it runs great when it runs and it'll idle all day without a hiccup.

edit: new info. starts to run like shit when you shift into 2nd on the column but soon as you hit 1st itll stall out. ill check trans wiring tomorrow thinking maybe this is a torque converter problem now
 
Last edited:
Make sure both your brake lights are working. The torque converter unlocks with the brake light circuit, but it has to get the signal from right and left brake lights, otherwise blinkers would unlock it. Your hazard lights will unlock the torque converter too. If both bulbs are working that is.
 
Continuing my previous post about keeping the stock fuel bowl. That was a fail. Fuel pressure would drop too low under load. So I went with a Fuel Lab regulator and post filter from Martys. Pressure stays nailed at 68psi now. On the way to work the other morning the truck died, no oil pressure. It came home on a rollback. Put a new Melling oil pump on it and got oil pressure back. Old pump had 0012 clearance new one has 0002.
Question for guys that have a direct reading oil pressure gauge. Mine is tapped off of the port on the oil cooler and it takes about five seconds for oil pressure to come up, I think that's fine. Hot oil pressure at idle is about 20psi, 60psi at 2500rpm, again I think that's fine. What are some of yall seeing on startup and running?
 
Getting a few things done on my truck. I resealed the oil cooler and dipstick tube. Hard part about the oil cooler is getting it pressed back together while its up in there. I used a board clamp that I cut down just long enough to fit. Im sure there is a proper tool for this. The only oil leak now is the rear main but its not too bad I just see where its damp around that area. Its not dripping anyways.

I noticed the driverside engine mount was missing the top bolt and was cracked..after I got the oil cooler back on. I unbolted the oil cooler but left it together then lifted the engine as much as I could and got it out. I welded all the cracks and put it back in with all the bolts this time. And got the oil cooler back on.

I put a new waterpump, thermostat and housing and all coolant hoses and lines. Flushed the radiator, heatercore and engine out.

Put a new Ford cps on.

I put new belt, tensioner and idler pulleys on.

Whacked the hvac fan with a hammer and now its working.

Today I am going to try pulling out a broken exhaust bolt. I will try welding a nut on and pulling it out that way. Its the furthest back driverside one. It always has to be the hardest one to get to.

Replace third brake light bulb and see if that fixs my cruise control.

Also going to take it in and get it aligned today.

Next is to get the engine wire harness, uvch and glowplugs. Going to get pyro, boost and fuel pressure guages. New grill headlights, markers and headlight surrounds. Needs a steering wheel the leather is all gone and the center is caved in probably from someone punching it.

I am driving it to Wichita today to see how it does. I have an offroad trip next weekend about 2.5 hours away so I want to make sure its good to go so I will drive it as much as I can before that.
 
I got the exhaust bolt out first try.

I replaced the third brake light and it works now.

The cruise control still does not work. I hate working on cruise control since it has to be moving to even test it. Not sure where to look now. The brake fluid is full.

I didn’t get it aligned today I ran out of time. I will go over tomorrow and do that. My friend at the Ford dealer says he can get the factory engine wire harness for $300 so thats good. He said he will look into the uvch Monday.

I drove it over 100 miles today at 75-80mph and it did great besides the cruise control not working. And 3rd gear syncro is non existent.
 
Looking at other sites they say to jump the sensor on the m/c to try to make the cruise work. They don't say wether to jump the front one with 2 wires or side one with 3.
Jump the front one with 2 wires, that is the one that cancels the cruise control.

That is the the part that was recalled for catching fire. Any fluid leaking at the switch?

I went through a spell like that, seems like it always came back to buttons on the steering wheel needing to be cleaned.
 
I jumped it and it didn’t work. I dont see any fluid leaking.

i am guessing it is the switches. They feel fine hitting them but who knows. The center of the steering wheel is smashed in. The horn still works though. I looked up good steering wheels on ebay. Wow. Refurbished ones were almost $500. There was a new old stock one on there for $5000. I need to go to lkq and see if there are any in the yard.
 
i am guessing it is the switches. They feel fine hitting them but who knows. The center of the steering wheel is smashed in.
Funny how common a smashed horn button is.

That shouldn't affect the switches though.

I remember one time driving somewhere and the cruise wasn't working. Since I was frustrated and didn't have anything better to do I just keep pushing the buttons. Try the on button then set. Over and over.

Eventually it took off and started working. Worked normal for a while after that. When it quit I pulled the horn cover off, took the buttons out and cleaned them. Worked for a while. Then got finicky again.

So for me, it was normal to have buttons that acted weird. Don't know if I am the only person like that or not.

No reason for it. the interior is dry and spotless clean. No real dirt or oils to get on them.
 
I took it on its first haul pulling the buggy. I went a little over 300 miles between 70 & 85mph the whole way there and 65-75 back. A rear tank there and front tank back. It pulled good but I was worried to hammer down too hard since it does not have a pyro gauge and my friend I got it from said it had a tune on it from an Edge programmer but he didn’t remember which one. I just tried to keep it from smoking too much and adjusted my throttle.

I got the obd mx+ and FORScan lite. The other day it said it had a code for the icp. I didnt have a 1-1/16 deep wall so I didn’t change it until I got to the place we wheeled when I borrowed one from my friend. Before I put it on it would occasionally throw a cel and run a little rough. One time on the way down it hiccuped like it stalled for a split second as I crested a hill and rolled off the throttle. It didnt die just stalled a second and continued the rest of the way with no problem.

The cel usually goes off when running down the highway.

Once I got to the trails the cel came on and it started idling rough. Then I got out and let it idle and it died after a few minutes. I got back in and it fired right back up.

I changed the icp and after I fired it up it died after about 30 seconds and wouldn’t fire back up. I gave it some cosby sauce (glowplug
relay is unhooked) and it fired right up. The cel was still on and it ran rough like before.

After about 10 miles on the highway it went off until I stopped at a gas station for my friend to get fuel. It came back on and started running rough again. I hooked up the forscan and it showed no codes at all even though the cel was on.

Once I got back on the highway for 5 miles or so the cel went off and only came on occasionally randomly on the way home. While on the highway when it would come on I wouldn’t notice a drop in power or anything.

Today I drove it and it stalled on me twice just driving 2 miles to my moms in town driving. It fired right up each time. On the way back it died 3 or 4 times within a quarter mile of my moms
then it cleared up and ran fine all the way home.

The forscan still says no codes. I dont think the forscan is working right or I dont know how to use it.

Should I have unhooked the battery after putting the new sensor in to make it learn. It is a factory Ford sensor.

Or is something else wrong? Now I remember why I like mechanical diesels.
 
Did you monitor your ICP readings with forscan while you drove? What were the readings?
 
I took it on its first haul pulling the buggy.

Or is something else wrong? Now I remember why I like mechanical diesels.
The dying with no CE codes should be some kind of intermittent wire connectivity issue. Whether it’s a bad ground or a bad connection in a cam plug socket. My dad had a MDT doing that exact same thing, it was a harness/ECM plug that wasn’t making a solid connection 100% of the time. The fix? Dielectric grease was all it took to fix after month’s of trying to troubleshoot. It sounds to simple to be true. But dielectric grease is a $5 dollar fix to a multi thousand dollar problem.
 
I picked my kids up this afternoon about 4 miles total. The cel never came on and it ran perfect the entire time.

Did you monitor your ICP readings with forscan while you drove? What were the readings?
I dont know how. I will see if I can figure it out.
The dying with no CE codes should be some kind of intermittent wire connectivity issue. Whether it’s a bad ground or a bad connection in a cam plug socket. My dad had a MDT doing that exact same thing, it was a harness/ECM plug that wasn’t making a solid connection 100% of the time. The fix? Dielectric grease was all it took to fix after month’s of trying to troubleshoot. It sounds to simple to be true. But dielectric grease is a $5 dollar fix to a multi thousand dollar problem.
The ce light is on when it stalls out. But the forscan is not showing any codes when I check.

I have 2 uvchs and gaskets and glowplugs and an entire engine wire harness on the way. When I install it I will use that on all the connections.
 
I looked up how to monitor things with the forscan and obdlink. It does not work at all for me. Maybe i have a junk forscan or obdlink. It says it’s connected, it shows my truck under the vehicle. I have tried turning my key on and off turning the obdlink on and off and the app. Still does nothing. I feel like I wasted my money on both of these things. All I get is nothing.

AF652EF3-E524-4851-AA87-0334642741E7.png
 
Obd link and forscan has been working flawlessly for me. Maybe your PCM needs repaired. Full force diesel has a test service for a hundred bucks. Local shops might be able to test it too.
 
Obd link and forscan has been working flawlessly for me. Maybe your PCM needs repaired. Full force diesel has a test service for a hundred bucks. Local shops might be able to test it too.
Ok thank You. I am starting to not like this thing. I should have just put my superduty axle and nv4500 in my first gen dodge diesel instead of bothering with this pos.
 
Ok thank You. I am starting to not like this thing. I should have just put my superduty axle and nv4500 in my first gen dodge diesel instead of bothering with this pos.
It takes a certain nostalgia to like these trucks. I’m a huge 7.3p fan but on multiple occasions when people have asked me about getting a 7.3, I tell them that unless they really have a fan type love for the old Ford trucks they’ll end up hating it. It’s got plenty of things to love, but they are 20+ years old with lots of wear and tare, and it can get awfully expensive and time consuming to have them running well. I enjoy fixing things up on mine. It’s become my favorite hobby.
 
Ok thank You. I am starting to not like this thing. I should have just put my superduty axle and nv4500 in my first gen dodge diesel instead of bothering with this pos.
You can probably make money on it if you want to dump it. There’s always somebody thinking they’re getting the chalice from the temple of doom in equivalent value with an OBS7.3.

My little brother has basically the same story. Thought the 7.3 was going to be more than it really was. Got a decent deal on a clean CC/LB F350. Fucked with it for a few years disappointed in it the whole time. Sold it and made money on it. Says if he had bought the same truck but with the 460 in it he’d still have it. He’s happily rocking a Cummins truck now.
 
I looked up how to monitor things with the forscan and obdlink. It does not work at all for me. Maybe i have a junk forscan or obdlink. It says it’s connected, it shows my truck under the vehicle. I have tried turning my key on and off turning the obdlink on and off and the app. Still does nothing. I feel like I wasted my money on both of these things. All I get is nothing.

AF652EF3-E524-4851-AA87-0334642741E7.png

At risk of sounding like Indian tech support, did you press the play button on the bottom left to start the readings?

I use Forscan on my iPhone 6 and the cheapest OBD II WiFi I could find on Amazon and it all works just fine on my 2000.

As for you stalling issue, my best guess would be the injector harness is damaged outside the valve cover where it lays on the top of the engine. It is a fairly common issure for the harness to start wearing through on higher mileage trucks. It could also be related to the cam position sensor/harness.

My only other guess would be the OBD connector you're using. The 7.3L is not fully OBD II compliant, and some connectors/programs will cause the engine to randomly stall (I've experienced this using Dash Command with the same OBD connector I currently use). Does it only happen when trying to data log/read codes? I have no experience with the connector you mentioned, but not all OBD connectors are fully compatible with Forscan and can limit functionality.
 
It takes a certain nostalgia to like these trucks. I’m a huge 7.3p fan but on multiple occasions when people have asked me about getting a 7.3, I tell them that unless they really have a fan type love for the old Ford trucks they’ll end up hating it. It’s got plenty of things to love, but they are 20+ years old with lots of wear and tare, and it can get awfully expensive and time consuming to have them running well. I enjoy fixing things up on mine. It’s become my favorite hobby.
I do have love for these trucks. My dad bought a brand new 97 F350 daycab single wheel 4x4 5spd Powerstroke xlt with rubber floor it was Saddle Tan with tan bucket seat interior polished alcoas with a hyrdrabed. I miss the days riding with him feeding cattle everyday. I learned to drive in that truck too. So I always wanted one.

The truck I have actually belonged to a friends dad. It was in pristine condition inside and out with a Cannonball balebed. Till my friend got drunk and smashed the driverside fender, door and extended cab in on a gate then smashed the whole passenger side on the way out. Im not sure how my friends dad didnt kill him.

Then another friend bought it from the dad and replaced all the panels and put a regular bed on it a spraypainted it flat black. A few years later that friend smashed the driver side fender door extended cab and bed pulling out of the original owners mailbox.

The truck has more drunk miles than sober so it’s name is Whiskey Richard.
You can probably make money on it if you want to dump it. There’s always somebody thinking they’re getting the chalice from the temple of doom in equivalent value with an OBS7.3.

My little brother has basically the same story. Thought the 7.3 was going to be more than it really was. Got a decent deal on a clean CC/LB F350. Fucked with it for a few years disappointed in it the whole time. Sold it and made money on it. Says if he had bought the same truck but with the 460 in it he’d still have it. He’s happily rocking a Cummins truck now.

I pro wont sell it I dont sell anything.

At risk of sounding like Indian tech support, did you press the play button on the bottom left to start the readings?

I use Forscan on my iPhone 6 and the cheapest OBD II WiFi I could find on Amazon and it all works just fine on my 2000.

As for you stalling issue, my best guess would be the injector harness is damaged outside the valve cover where it lays on the top of the engine. It is a fairly common issure for the harness to start wearing through on higher mileage trucks. It could also be related to the cam position sensor/harness.

My only other guess would be the OBD connector you're using. The 7.3L is not fully OBD II compliant, and some connectors/programs will cause the engine to randomly stall (I've experienced this using Dash Command with the same OBD connector I currently use). Does it only happen when trying to data log/read codes? I have no experience with the connector you mentioned, but not all OBD connectors are fully compatible with Forscan and can limit functionality.
Maybe I am dumb. I thought the play button was to record. I will try that next time I am able to mess with the truck.
 
I looked up how to monitor things with the forscan and obdlink. It does not work at all for me. Maybe i have a junk forscan or obdlink. It says it’s connected, it shows my truck under the vehicle. I have tried turning my key on and off turning the obdlink on and off and the app. Still does nothing. I feel like I wasted my money on both of these things. All I get is nothing.

AF652EF3-E524-4851-AA87-0334642741E7.png
Hit play
 
It takes a certain nostalgia to like these trucks. I’m a huge 7.3p fan but on multiple occasions when people have asked me about getting a 7.3, I tell them that unless they really have a fan type love for the old Ford trucks they’ll end up hating it. It’s got plenty of things to love, but they are 20+ years old with lots of wear and tare, and it can get awfully expensive and time consuming to have them running well. I enjoy fixing things up on mine. It’s become my favorite hobby.
Yeah while i think the 7.3 is a great engine, it's arguably one of the first electronic diesels, and it isnt exactly easy to troubleshoot as a result.


My only other guess would be the OBD connector you're using. The 7.3L is not fully OBD II compliant, and some connectors/programs will cause the engine to randomly stall (I've experienced this using Dash Command with the same OBD connector I currently use). Does it only happen when trying to data log/read codes? I have no experience with the connector you mentioned, but not all OBD connectors are fully compatible with Forscan and can limit functionality.

This x1000. It certainly doesnt make them any easier to troubleshoot.

I may have said this earlier in the thread. I had an issue with a random stall on mine, it was a bad connector for the crank sensor. The pigtail for the IPR went bad and caused it to run like shit, with no codes. I also had a random CEL with no codes and stalling, and it was a bad SCR in the PCM.

If you suspect the ICP just unplug it. If the problem goes away its the sensor. If it doesnt, its not. Its one of the few sensors the engine will run without.
 
I got the exhaust bolt out first try.

I replaced the third brake light and it works now.

The cruise control still does not work. I hate working on cruise control since it has to be moving to even test it. Not sure where to look now. The brake fluid is full.

I didn’t get it aligned today I ran out of time. I will go over tomorrow and do that. My friend at the Ford dealer says he can get the factory engine wire harness for $300 so thats good. He said he will look into the uvch Monday.

I drove it over 100 miles today at 75-80mph and it did great besides the cruise control not working. And 3rd gear syncro is non existent.
Make sure Your reverse lights work and the fuse isn't blown. I dealt with no cruise for years on a 95 I had. Decided to fix the no reverse lights right before I sold it, and naturally the cruise came back with it..
 
Only two problems i had with my 7.3: was the wiring harness under the driver valve cover. That felt like i dropped a bank of cylinders, but was able to nurse it two blocks to the dealer. And a cps that failed while it was raining. Luckily a fellow wheeler drove by and saved my bacon (thanks Nick!).
 
Top Back Refresh