Power Cutting Out on Start Up

[KELLY88]

Well this has been an odd problem that's gotten worse over the last month. In the beginning, every once and a while, when I go to start the truck it would crank once, hesitate a bit, crank a few more times then fire right up. Problem is that I lost power in that hesitation. The radio and clock would reset like what happens when you unhook the negative battery cable. It used to be a once in a while occurence but now it happens almost every start up.

Another problem going along with it is that if I shut the truck off and try to start it again in under a minute it won't work. It cranks a few times then clicks like the starter isn't engaging. It'll work after about 2 minutes of waiting but with a lot of hesitation. It starts best after it's sat at least an hour.

I thought maybe the battery terminals were just getting a bad connection. Cleaned them up, problem still there. I'm pretty limited on electrical know-how so any input would be great.

 

[martin]

It's a bad connection somewhere. follow the cables from the battery and find where they attach to stuff, one or more connections will be bad. favourite places for bad connections are where the cable connects to the body and the connection to the block.

 

[lone-wolf]

I would check the ground cables first.

 

[KELLY88]

Thanks for the tips. I'll check connections and ground cables this afternoon.

 

[KELLY88]

Did some searching tonight. Can't really chase the cables very far, they get lost in there. But I did find some gunk on the connection to the starter motor. Would this kind of buildup cause these problems? If so what's the best way to clean it off? And ya I know the pictures are kind of crappy, its the best I could get.

 

[KELLY88]

Any thoughts? This problem is getting really annoying.

 

[martin]

As an aid to diagnosing the problem. take a booster cable and connect one end to the neg. side of the battery and the other side to the engine block and see if it cures the problem. If the problem dissappears you have a ground problem. If nothing changes the problem is on the positive cables somewhere.

 

[KELLY88]

Interesting. I'll give that a shot. Also because I couldn't find it, where is the ground connection on a '97 4.0 block?

 

[martin]

I believe it's on the block on the passenger side just below the manifolt, which makes it virtually inaccessable. On my 84 I just put a new one onto the alternator bracket. The 4 liters have the alternator in a different place so that would probably not be convenient, but as long as it's a good connection to the block it matters not where it is.

 

[jubangy]

It probably wouldn't hurt to pull the wire off the starter and clean the contacts up some and get all that oil off of it.

Also, have you or anyone else ever changed the original battery cable clamps? If not I would probably give that a try as well as checking for the loose ground as stated earlier. It does however kind of sound like a loose wire at the battery to me. I just went through that on my 95 aerostar, that and a completely crapped out battery.

Wouldn't hurt to pulll that started out and give it a good clean job as well there is a lot of old oil and grime built up on it as well. May save you some headaches down the road.

To try and maybe troubleshoot alittle, next time you are having the problem you described and it will not start, try taking and turning the cables on the battery to pull the wires alittle tighter. I mean, take the positive cable where it clamps to the battery and turn the clamp clockwise and then try tightening it back up. If doing this to the clamps makes the truck start you have a pretty good idea where the problem is. Usually when I do this, it doesnt always start but the symptoms change enough that i know I am on the right track.

 

[KELLY88]

Cleaned the grime off the starter and ran a jumper cable between the battery and the block during start-up. Problem is still there. Is it safe to assume then that the ground to the block is good? I also checked out the connections to the starter relay and they seem fine. What's left?

 

[Earl43P]

I would suspect a bad cable (generic replacement cables should be <$40).

Might want to get the starter tested, along with a load test of the battery.

So the starter engages, turns the engine a bit, then you get a brown-out and the starter turns again? Sounds like a bad starter.

I'd AT LEAST take the starter off and open up the end cap to inspect the brushes. It will be the SHORT screws, not the long ones that hold the whole assembly together. If you decide to tear it apart, clean it well, lube it and try it again. Might get lucky.

 

[KELLY88]

Well that's the funny part, the starter only fails to engage if i try to restart the truck within 2 minutes of turning it off. After that it works fine but the computer still resets.

 

[martin]

Is there an aftermarket remote starter on the truck?

 

[lone-wolf]

The fact the radio resets is confusing to me. I had a bad connection on my starter and it never caused any loss of power to the radio or anything.
I removed the starter and had it tested and it was fine, cleaned up the connections and it has been running fine for months. I also had a bad battery that I replaced.