Manager Forum

Got a 1990 E-250 with a werid deal.

When driving down the road the radio and the red brake light will go on and off. Yes the red brake light is on in this thing all the time. Have checked power and grounds and from what i can see i am not losing anything from power or ground. The custmer has replaced the alt voltage reg and rewired alot of that to try to fix it. I put an inj switch in it cause it just hangs there. I guess it was stolen before and never fixed. Been looking at this thing now for a while and can't come up with nothing. When the radio goes out it is out for a while so i think then my meter should be able to read it. I would say it is out for about 5 sec. Seems to do it when u are hitting bumps or taking off fast. The volt gauge will go all the way over to over charge too sometimes. I am at a dead end and dont know where to go from here does any one have any ideas...?

thanks for reading

This probably won't be much help but those things were usually an electrical nightmare once they got older and people have hacked into them plus the wear factor over the years. It is most likely you have multiple issues and not just one thing effecting these systems. I would deal with them one at a time and see where that takes you. Sorry I dont have anything more concrete to offer. Good luck.

Not at a place to check but didn't these have G.E.M.'s in them. I remember working on fleets of Fords that the module would fail and all sorts of weird things would happen. I remember them coming in and the customer telling me the module had been replaced and in fact it had but the hacker didn't put in the top bolt and it had pulled away from the back of the fuse box. The most common fail was something wouldn't turn off or on. Could be wipers, radio, gauges, blower, etc. One or all, made no sense.

Ok been a while since i could work on this thing again. But got it in last night and checked more grounds and powers. All seemed good. When driving it have my meter on the back of the radio to see if i am losing power or ground and the radio will go out and the meter will show then i still have both. Now i am useing a fluik just a evryday meter. One time i did get it to die. The custmer has told me then it would but never had it happen to me. I thought about the GEM but i can not see then the radio runs though it. Oh and dont know if i said but this a carpet cleaning van. Has all that stuff in it. Seems to do it when it shifts or hits a bump. Ran a new power wire and ground from the fuse box to radio and it still would do it..

I believe the radio has more than one power supply. One for power with key on and one for memory, power always. If either one goes out then so will radio, just a thought.

Reach behind the fuse box and see if the gem is backing off at the top.

Ok got it back in again. Looked all over and this van does not have a G.E.M. I have been all over this thing it is werid u drive and hit a bump and the brake light come on and the radio will go off. But in the bay i can hit pull do what ever on what ever and it will not do nothing. This thing is being a pain in my side. If u hit enough bumps it will kill the van. I hate to but i am getting to the point of throwing up my hand and being done.

Check the body ground.

Will just stared going out of the box. Put in a differnt ECU and that fixed it. I dont know how that did much for the radio but it did lol. Just glad then it is fixed..

We have had a couple of Ford trucks with wierd electrical problems. Since we live in one of these nice cold states, critters tend to look for a warm place to hang out once it gets cold. After MANY electrical checks etc, our tech had pulled out the under hood fuse box. He noticed an interesting odor coming from the fuse box. Here a little mousey had decided to use the fuse box as its bathroom. Mouse pee does not work well with fuses evidently