1998 Ford Escort electrical short

PAPABISS

MEMBER
1998 FORD ESCORT
2.0L
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
150,000 MILES

The car will turn over but not start. The fuse marked " ASC " which I assume is the cruise control keeps blowing when the ignition is turned on. Sometime back, when the car was running, the battery went dead and was removed from the vehicle. During that time the car was started by running jumper cables from another vehicle to the battery cables ( minus battery ) of the escort. It started but ran very poorly for a few minutes and has never started since.

Sunday, July 5th, 2015 AT 9:43 PM

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
34,350 POSTS

When it was running poorly, was that with the boosting car still connected by jumper cables or did you remove the cables and expect the engine to stay running just on the generator?

A simple trick to finding a short is to replace the blown fuse with a pair of spade terminals, then use small jumper wires to connect them to a 12 volt light bulb. A brake light bulb works well. When the circuit is live and the short is present, the bulb will be full brightness and hot so be sure it's not laying on the carpet or against a plastic door panel. Now you can unplug electrical connectors and move things around to see what makes the short go away. When it does, the bulb will get dim or go out.

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Sunday, July 5th, 2015 AT 10:21 PM