Bronco II won't start!

[dispatchrobb]

2.9L B2 won't start. It runs fine, but sometimes the amp gauge shows low. Today it turns over but too slow to start, but the battery just keeps turning it over so I know that's not totally dead, however, when this happened before, I jump-started it and it spun over much faster than normal and fired right up on the first crank, and didn't happen again for a couple months till today. It's been firing right up so far.

KOEO codes are 1-1 and the second set is code 15 which is Failure in ECA,problems with keep alive memory.

First, is there a speed that the engine must spin for it to actually start? Autozone said my alt and batt are fine, but something doesn't seem right since it pulses 3-4 times after I start it up, then everything gets bright but the gauge sometimes reads lower and there's really no rhyme or reason it does, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does.

I only drive about 5 miles to work so maybe the batt isn't getting charged back up fully with a possible bad alt, and it's just to the point where it won't start it up but I can if I jump start it? I also have a Lincoln electric fan, set up through two marine relays on a manual switch. I haven't needed it till recently, so maybe that's drained the battery and the faulty alt can't charge it up in the short drive to work? The amp gauge drops a ton when I click it on but comes back up in a second or two but reads lower than normal till I turn it off.

 

[509lifted]

sell it to me for 200 and i will fix it an sell it back for 2k... haha but no go to a more reputable place instead of crakzone and get a new alt and battery and if it doesnt work sell it on here or take it back and say they wouldnt work on your truck

 

[wildbill23c]

Ok, that stock amp gauge doesn't mean a thing, its showing there's a draw, its really more of an idiot light than a help. You need an actual voltage gauge to see what's really going on.

I can say this, if your battery is weak, is going bad, etc. it won't start the engine efficiently if it even starts it at all. Check your battery cables make sure the terminals at the battery are clean and tight. Check the connections to your starter/solenoid as well, if those connections are corroded or lose it can cause a no start, slow crank, or just a clicking noise.

Its really hard to diagnose not seeing the actual symptoms, but I'd start with all the connections at the battery, how old is the battery? If its more than about 3 years old it could be nearing the end of its life, especially if it gets drained a lot, these starting batteries are not intended to be continually drained and recharged it considerably shortens their life.

 

[bigtruck94]

Ok, that stock amp gauge doesn't mean a thing, its showing there's a draw, its really more of an idiot light than a help. You need an actual voltage gauge to see what's really going on.

I can say this, if your battery is weak, is going bad, etc. it won't start the engine efficiently if it even starts it at all. Check your battery cables make sure the terminals at the battery are clean and tight. Check the connections to your starter/solenoid as well, if those connections are corroded or lose it can cause a no start, slow crank, or just a clicking noise.

Its really hard to diagnose not seeing the actual symptoms, but I'd start with all the connections at the battery, how old is the battery? If its more than about 3 years old it could be nearing the end of its life, especially if it gets drained a lot, these starting batteries are not intended to be continually drained and recharged it considerably shortens their life.

Agree! ^ Wouldn't hurt to look at the starter too.

 

[dispatchrobb]

Battery is about 6 months old. Cable ends aren't corroded, I cleaned them up, and are tight. It always starts on the 2-3 crank, except today, where it'll crank, the same slow speed about 15 times (for 2-3 tries) but no start, and it doesn't appear to slow down, like a dead batt would.

Sometimes the amp gauge reads lower, even when nothing has been turned on or off. The oil press gauge also fluctuates with the movements of the amp gauge. Lights do not dim when at a stop light, which makes me wonder if the alt is ok. Just not sure why the batt would turn starter slowly. I think I might just change out all the cables, and see what happens before I spend money on an alt I don't need.

 

[dispatchrobb]

Oh, starter is brand new as well. It's a 2.9L engine, but the 4.0 flywheel and starter.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

It sounds like your battery is not getting a good charge possibly from short trips. It can take up to an hour of running to replace the energy used for a single start. Is the battery full of water? disconnect the neg cable and fully charge it on the 2 amp setting (slow charge is best) and measure the battery voltage. let it sit overnight and check the voltage again if it holds power the battery is good. Then do a noload and load test on the charging system. If that passes you may have an indirect short or just take it for a road trip once a week to replace the power used from alot of short trips. The tech library has a section on troubleshooting the charging system. Check your wiring and run a noload and load test if everything smells good then change your driving habits a little or put it on a trickle charge regularly to keep the battery up.

 

[fyre82]

+2
I had a similar issue in winter when one of my trucks wasn't getting run regularly. Now that it is warm and I can get to it and run it weekly, no problems.

 

[wildbill23c]

Do the short trip thing over and over and run the battery down, yeah that's a common thing with lower amp output alternators. Drive it out of town once a week or drive it around town for an hour or so without starting and stopping the engine will help, or buy a small on-board battery trickle charger and plug it in each night after you get home from work or errands.

 

[natmanjoh]

+3 I agree with above posters. Same happened to mine on start up, replaced starter, battery, etc. Turned out a wire was corroded. Replaced that and worked perfectly afterwards everytime.

 

[dispatchrobb]

Well, tried to jump start it and wouldn't turn over any faster, let it sit with two sets of cables on it for about 45 minutes, and still didn't turn over any faster. Figured a couple cells in the Battery were shot, (battery sticker was from 2011, but I've only had it for 6 months), so went to get new battery. Same thing, just turned over slowly, no start. So took off the coil wire and voila, no spark. So it's off to hitch a ride to the parts store for a coil. Not sure at this point what else it could be. I'll try checking the old one before I install this one so I don't waste another perfectly good part. Still don't understand the slow engine turning over.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Alot of people having problems with battery cables and grounds. Bend the cables end to end somtimes the will corrode under the insulation causing alot of resistance. Sand all the grounds metal to metal if you dont know the age of the cables and you live in a cold area just upgrade to larger guage wires. If the engine isnt spinning fast enough you wont get a good spark. To check your coil put a spark plug in the coil wire and set it on a good ground, turn the key on and with a jumper wire short the coil neg terminal to ground quick touches the plug should fire with the touches. Resistance creates heat try and start it a few times and feel the battery cables end to end if one is getting hot replace it.

 

[dispatchrobb]

well, no spark out of the coil, or coil wire, but have 12 volts on one side, and the light flashes away on the other so I know the module works. replaced the coil anyway, and no spark, but it's turning slowly and I'm using an hei tester, but when I stop cranking it sparks a little with new coil, so must be from not spinning engine fast enough. Gonna mess with wires and see what's up there cause it just won't start and battery is slowing down from cranking on it.

 

[wildbill23c]

Charge the battery, and make sure the battery is good, a bad battery will give slow crank, no start problems everytime. You can rule the alternator out for now as it doesn't work unless the engine is running. Check all of your wiring connections, a lose wire on the starter or battery will cause a loss of amperage and cause a slow crank or even a no crank issue as well.

 

[dispatchrobb]

Something simple as a corroded battery cable. I had spark, fuel, everything was doing what it was supposed to be doing, ran all the tests to verify everything worked, cleaned the cable ends, cleaned the grounds... and same thing, slower than normal crank with no start while hooked up to jumper cables off a pickup. So, hooked jumper cable from pos batt, to starter with no other jumper cables, and I didn't know it could crank that fast, fired up on the second rotation. So all that for a stupid battery cable.