Several months ago I read that a member changed his brake fuse #13 from 15 amp to 5 amp. This was done to prevent any possibiliy of a fire occuring from the faulty cruse controll switch. I did this before the official Ford recall as a safety step along with installing #XW7Z-9G652-BA Brake Repair Kit. At that time it seemed like a great idea. Here's what just happened. Wife called me from a convience strore with the truck stuck in park. As best as I can tell she went over some rail road tracks and stepped on the brakes at the same time which turned on the abs. That occurring blew #13 5 amp fuse I had previously down sized. She saw the flashing ABS light on and pulled over into the parking lot and shut the truck off the try to clear the flashing ABS light. With fuse #13 blown you lock out the shifter and can not get it out of park. I arrived and over road the interlock by putting the ignition switch in the off not lock position and moved the shift selector to neutral. Then started truck and put shift selector in drive and drove home to troubleshoot problem. Moral of story = DO NOT OVER ENGINEER SOLUTIONS and let those who know best provide those solutions. Today I'm on my way to local Ford dealer for the correct safety recall.

 

You may have misunderstood previous suggestions regarding the installation of a 5A fuse.

It was my suggestion that a 5A fuse be ADDED to the cruise harness, not that F13 be swapped to a 5A fuse.

I'll bet the wife will bring this up again in the future, several times...

Steve

 

Indeed, F13 should remain a 15A, otherwise you will have problems like you experienced. F13 feeds the brake-shift interlock, as well as both brake lights. The ABS had nothing to do with the fuse being blown, it's merely a coincidence. It's possible that the parallel power surges from the ABS unit activating (most vehicles use a 50A fuse for that) may have been enough to trip the 5A fuse.

As was mentioned, replace F13 with the proper 15A fuse, and disconnect the harness until you install the proper parts.

-Joe

 

Not to flame you GIJoeCam but in my 1998 F-150 5.4 auto when I remove or blow fuse#13 my ABS light starts flashing, brake lights do not work and the shift interlock is locked. Flashing ABS I think signifies theres a problem with the ABS and the ABS circuit is not operational. Begging your pardon but Fuse #13 does have something to do with the ABS.

 

No flames... my mistake... yes, for 98, the F13 circuit ties into the RABS or 4WABS module on those vehicle so-equipped. The circuit directly feeds the RABS module via the RABS data-link connector in addition to an intermittent signal via the brake pedal position switch. However, on vehicles equipped with 4wheel ABS, F13 only feeds a signal to the 4WABS module via the brake pedal position switch. F13 does not directly feed power to the
4WABS unit.

That all changed for the 99-03s as on those, the 15A #13 fuse doesn't feed the ABS modules in either model. For some reason, I had it on the brain that we were talking about a later model, not a 98. I stand corrected.

It doesn't change the fact that replacing the 15A fuse with the 5A fuse was not the correct solution to the problem, as you already admitted.

-Joe