I have a 99 Taurus LX 3.0 V6, has no power at cluster and no crank, no start! Headlights, power windows, interoir lights , radio all work and come on, only getting oil light symbol on cluster, when I turn ignition switch on, I have check all fuses and charged battery and checked starter connections, My XTOOL scanner will not read the vin, but will acknowledge that it is connected at obd port

 

Do you have a test light or voltmeter to use ?

 

yes I have both

 

Let's check the starting circuit. Locate C121 inside the battery junction box. Remove the relay. Look at 1st diagram above, and let's test and see if "86" gets starting signal. 1) Test your engine block and see if it has good ground, just test continuity between the spot that you picked on the engine block and negative post of your battery. 2) Set your multimeter to test voltage (set it at 20V), red probe to terminal 86, black probe to the ground you have chosen. Find a helper to turn the key to START, do you get 12V signal on your voltmeter? If you do, your PATS (supposed to send ground signal to terminal 85 of the starter relay) could be at fault. If not, let's move on to something else.
You said your cluster doesn't light up, it can be a loose ground wire or connector. What can cause no start, if the PATS shares the same ground point as the cluster, then it can also cause a no start situation. Why your headlights continue to work because headlights draw high amp and they can use a relay to energize or on a different circuit than your cluster. So please check C121's terminal 86 first.

 

ok thanks I will test and check all this out and let you know what I find out!

 

ok just tested getting good ground from engine block to negative cable post on battery, only getting .25 on pin 86 when key is turned over

 

You need to test the female terminal on where C121 (starter relay) inserted into and test with the relay unplugged of course, and set your voltmeter to 20V (when we are expecting close to 12V voltage), same way to get the voltage on your battery + - terminals. Say your battery reads 12.3V currently, you should expect to receive around 11V then the circuit is good.

 

I am getting 12.38 on C121 female terminal

 

I went to town and and just came back home and now everything is working and cranking and starting, going to put my Xtool scanner on it and see what it can find , that's so weird

 

I'm getting code P1000 which is a faulty pcm or disconnected battery , I know it's not a disconnected battery