Hold on. You did not list the engine size, but none of them hold 5.5 quarts of oil. Were you checking the level with the engine running or stopped? If it really was out of oil, serious damage will be done within a few seconds.
The generator's job is to run the car's electrical system and recharge the battery after it cranks the engine. It is not in the picture until after the engine is running. If the generator did fail, the battery has to keep the electrical system going, and at best, it will only do that for about an hour if you are not using the head lights or heater fan. Eventually the engine will stall, but you should still see some dim dash lights. Various warning lights will start turning on before the engine stalls.
If everything was working fine the last time you drove the car, and now everything is not working, the best suspect is a loose or dirty battery cable connection. Specifically, follow the smaller battery positive wire to where it is bolted to the under-hood fuse box. Be sure that nut is tight. Follow the smaller negative battery wire to the body and be sure that connection is tight and not rusty.
Ford had a number of different starter circuits for different engines, but they all used a version of solenoid/relay on the inner fender near the battery. For some versions, the larger positive starter cable bolts to one terminal of that solenoid. On other versions, only the smaller positive wire bolts there. Those solenoids use soft copper nuts and studs, and it is real common for those nuts to work loose and cause intermittent problems. Check those nuts, but be careful that the wrench never contacts the nut and a metal part of the car at the same time. Doing that will cause a huge shower of sparks, and possibly even a melted wrench.
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Monday, November 27th, 2017 AT 4:42 PM
