Have a 99 F350 Powerstroke that when starting after the initial fire just dies. It will not do this all the time. You can drive it for a couple days just fine then come out and try to start it and it will die after the initial fire. It might do this for an hour and then start just fine 30 minutes later.

We had a local guy hook a scanner up to it and he thought it was the ignition swith I believe. It was just a plug in with two screws on it that hooked up under the dash belowe the steering wheel.

Any ideas?

If the scanner said ignition switch, it is a good bet that it is the ignition switch.

Sorry...I should have added that the switch has been replaced but the truck still acts up..

What trouble codes were retrieved with the scanner? How long does it run before dying?

ign. switches don't set dtc's.... sounds like a cam sensor... under recall at dealer.....dtc's....??

What trouble codes were retrieved with the scanner? How long does it run before dying?

I am not sure all of the trouble codes the scanner picked up. There were some randoms that were picked up and the guy said that he thought they were due to someone having a fuel box on the truck prior to our purchase but he didn't think they were related to the problem we are having. When you turn the key it will have the initial fire and that is it. It does not run at all. Its just the initial fire and then nothing.

ign. switches don't set dtc's.... sounds like a cam sensor... under recall at dealer.....dtc's....??

Someone mentioned the cam sensor to us. He said he thought they were somewhat famous for going out.

Sounds like cam sensor. Does the tach read anything? It may or may not be recall. Depends if it has been done as recall or not yet. My truck has eaten 4 of them since the recall.

Does the tach needle move when you are crankn ? If not its most likely the cps . They are cheep now, 30 bucks or so . Worth the coin to eliminate that .

I will check and see if the tach moves when cranking. It's just weird that it doesn't do it all the time. Sometimes it starts up just fine and runs like a champ and sometimes it just fires and kills off..

Check your oil level, you need oil to fire your injectors.

I will check and see if the tach moves when cranking. It's just weird that it doesn't do it all the time. Sometimes it starts up just fine and runs like a champ and sometimes it just fires and kills off..

Cam Sensor will do that. When I had mine first go out It would run fine then randomly die. Replaced and wala.

there was actually a recall on the cps becasue my dad's powerstroke did the same thing and the ford dealer had to replace it for free. all years of the 7.3 were effected by this. just thought i'd add my 2 cents:)

it's apparently has a history of failing between 100K and 150K miles. Mine went out at 105K miles

Do the cps. My parents had the recall done on their 99, went out again after a few weeks. So he went back to the dealer and they put his old one back in that was working fine, then handed him the new one. The can go out just driving down the road, will just kill the engine. In my 2000 I carry a spare one in the glove box with a 10mm 1/4 drive ratchet set up and an old flat blade screwdriver to pop it out with!

After your truck dies out and you try starting it again watch the tach, it gets it's signal from the cps, no tach= bad cps. If you have the codes read again, write them down and post them, several of us can tell you what they mean.