Strange issue...

[kc5cnt]

I have a 96 Ford F250 XLT 7.3 Turbo Diesel, I recently acquired it from my neighbor. Her advised when selling it to me that the truck has a quirk to watch out for and that is an intermittent kill of the engine while driving down the road. Today that happened as I was driving down the road...the engine died. Shifted into neutral, cranked, back into drive and went on my merry way.

The previous owner told me that it has occurred since he purchased the vehicle and neither he or FORD Service could determine the cause.

Since that event, I noticed that it is shifting harder (i will look at the condition of my fuse block, read that forum).

Any ideas

 

[Blue Goose]

If it does it intermittently while your driving and the tach dies intermittently at the same time, it's the CPS (camshaft positioning sensor). A very common failure on the 7.3. They will eventually fail all together creating a no start situation.

 

[kc5cnt]

Thanks, I will give it a try. I saw on another website that there is more than one model depending on engine s/n, would you know if that is the case with my vehicle or just newer models?

 

[aussie_f350]

Yes would definatly be the cps, i think they are all the same part number from 95-03 for 7.3s. Get on riffraff diesel websight and buy one from him, he only sells the best of things and his prices are as good as anybody.

 

[Blue Goose]

Obviously if the engine is stopped the tach will read zero, but because the CPS is also the sensor for the tach and if the tach quits the instance the engine starts to cut out that's the giveaway that the CPS is the culprit. If the CPS has finally gone bad, the tach won't register anything while cranking....

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if or what serial # differences there might be.... I had an '03 that had one going bad w/less than 40,000 miles....That's how I learned about them.... I also learned from folks with experience with the 7.3 that carrying a spare and a 9mm wrench is pretty common... Lol

 

[dustybumpers]

Cps went out on our 02 at 20,000 miles. There was a recall from ford back then. Might be worth your while to see if the recall is still active