An '84 BII that's in need of love.

[Hoosierman]

New grounds from battery to chassis to block. Battery to body. Block to firewall. In the process, I discovered that the EVR's connector was thoroughly rusted through and the connector pigtail was so corroded from this that it is compromised. Parts are cheap so I have a new EVR and pigtail I'll be installing. Not entirely sure if this is the cause of no-start but I know it isn't helping.

Both the old and remanned starter motors were tested, and confirmed to be good. I don't know if it's the "best" way to test it, but the relay to motor cable was given a continuity test with my voltmeter and gave me a solid 0.00 ohms.

I've poured through what JoshT had to say above to see what I can trace. Bit by bit of course, I have been winterizing things so haven't been too involved with the BII.

 

[Hoosierman]

Serious questions.

I have checked and serviced every ground that I know of.
Solenoid checks out good
Starter checks out good, voltage there when the key is turned ON is 12.3v.
Solenoid-Starter cable is good.

And it has occurred to me that when I look up the battery size, I see a lot of numbers thrown around. Group 62, group 65, group 56, group 55.

What size does this usually take? And what is the minimum CA/CCA it needs?

I currently have a two months old battery (as of October when I bought it.)

Everstart Value 65 for
650cca
810ca

It has dipped below 12.3v a few times, but I charged it right up.

I still turn the key on and get a solid click and nothing else.

Thanks.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Hearing a click when trying to start a vehicle is one of 2 things in my experience;
Weak battery.
Bad connection.

The relay to motor cable could have 0 ohms but still not be able to pass enough current.
The negative side was checked and connections checked and repaired. How about the positive side? The insulation can hide a lot of sin...
Did you do a voltage drop test?

 

[Hoosierman]

Hearing a click when trying to start a vehicle is one of 2 things in my experience;
Weak battery.
Bad connection.

The relay to motor cable could have 0 ohms but still not be able to pass enough current.
The negative side was checked and connections checked and repaired. How about the positive side? The insulation can hide a lot of sin...
Did you do a voltage drop test?

I added/replaced the following grounds:
Battery to frame to block (mimicking the original cable which was already gone).
Battery to body (on the same plate as the solenoid, opposite end.)
Other existing grounds I cleaned and refreshed as I know how.

I replaced the battery positive to the solenoid.

I did test the solenoid to starter cable, but I forget offhand what I got, to be frank. However, I had someone turn the key while I tested voltage at the starter and I believe I got 12.3 or 12.4 volts.

To be fair, I should probably check again with a fresh charge. See the volts at the battery compared to at the starter...

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Yes.
But what you did is not a voltage drop test.
I'm not the best at explaining voltage drop testing so look it up to confirm. Basically you check each side of a connection with the volt meter. Ideally you want to see 0V. But a lot of times you will see 0.1 or 0.2. If you see more than that you have found corrosion.

 

[Hoosierman]

So I finally got the time to do the voltage drop test any yeaaaaah... Old cable was kaput. Just goes to show how looks can be deceiving. Anyway, I ran out of time today as I have such limited time this weekend, might be able to get the starter put back on tomorrow with it being nice. So I did a thing that I'm sure plenty of people I shouldn't do but heh. since the starter is off, I hooked it up with the new cable and a ground cable just to be safe and we have liftoff!!!

When I put the starter back on (99% sure it will be tomorrow) the engine block, should I go ahead and add a ground cable to it just for good measure? I have a number of cables and I can attach it somewhere like to the body or the frame maybe. I see that ground strap hiding beside transmission on the passenger side too now, don't know if that's a frequent source of headaches or not.

Thanks for the advice on the voltage test!

 

[RobbieD]

Old cable was kaput. Just goes to show how looks can be deceiving.

Don't sweat it. Nobody believes that internally rotten cables are a thing, until they see it for themselves.

should I go ahead and add a ground cable to it just for good measure?

You could, if you want to, but remember that the starter (like everything else) will try to ground back to the battery negative post, along the path of least resistance. While I'm not sure off the the top of my head where on the engine the main grounding cable's mounting point was on an '88, just make sure that the engine itself is well grounded (big ass cable) back to the battery negative post. Then it wouldn't hurt to run a cable or strap from there to a starter mounting bolt.

Good job on your progress!

 

[Hoosierman]

Don't sweat it. Nobody believes that internally rotten cables are a thing, until they see it for themselves.



You could, if you want to, but remember that the starter (like everything else) will try to ground back to the battery negative post, along the path of least resistance. While I'm not sure off the the top of my head where on the engine the main grounding cable's mounting point was on an '88, just make sure that the engine itself is well grounded (big ass cable) back to the battery negative post. Then it wouldn't hurt to run a cable or strap from there to a starter mounting bolt.

Good job on your progress!

Aye, I have added several good grounding points, the block is now grounded well. If you would please, do you mean run a ground from a starter bolt to the battery negative itself?

 

[RobbieD]

If you would please, do you mean run a ground from a starter bolt to the battery negative itself?

No; there's no need to do that. I was just saying, it wouldn't hurt anything if you felt better by doing one.

I have added several good grounding points, the block is now grounded well.

That's all that you need. As long as the tranny is bolted tight to the block, and the starter is bolted tight to the tranny, it'll ground just fine.

The main thing that matters electrically to the starter, is that it has enough current to do it's thing, which takes a lot of juice (the two positive cables and relay/solenoid supply that). That current must get back to the battery, to complete the circuit; that's the grounding path. The transmission and engine, as an assembly, is kinda like a heat sink for electrons; a lot of them can be there and they'll go through it like shit through a goose. The critical part is the cable that grounds the engine to the battery negative terminal, as is the other grounds for the body and the frame. A bad conductor, or a bad connection, creates a choke point and that limits the current flow.

So, if you're engine is now grounded well, you're good.

 

[Hoosierman]

I like your analogy there.

What is that ground strap beside the transmission for? Is that for trans-frame? Hard for me to tell without a good light source (my light battery went on me before I saw it).

 

[RobbieD]

I like your analogy there.

What is that ground strap beside the transmission for? Is that for trans-frame? Hard for me to tell without a good light source (my light battery went on me before I saw it).

Not sure, without seeing it. There should be a braided ground strap between the engine and the firewall. And there's also a braided clip-on ground strap for the hood on the passenger side hinge.

 

[Hoosierman]

Anyone have any idea what this thing is? I found it tucked by the ignition coil. I'm kinda hoping if I turn it enough the Sequel will revert to its old glory lol.

 

[SenorNoob]

That's not original. It's an electrical plugin. Looks kinda like the one meant for an underhood light. The yellow part came from somewhere else. Looks like the kind of plug that comes on rebuilt power steering pumps.

 

[Hoosierman]

Update 12 April 2025--

After much research, and lots of fussing around, swapping starters a few times (mine came with two starters), and redoing every ground and adding some under the hood (I think a few were missing). I got to a point where it went from starting but no idling (stalling immediately), to not staring at all. It got too cold outside so I waited.

Today, I did the much-praised Explorer starter swap complete with two new 60" cables. To those who stumble up on this wondering if they should swap in an explorer Starter- that's not up to me to decide and only you know your situation well enough to make that decision. But I can tell you YES it absolutely does work! Napa sold me a brand new NAPA brand Starter for a whole dollar less than a reman. It was for a 1991 Ford Explorer with a 4.0 engine and the auto gearbox.

There are plenty of discussions online. It has to be for a 4.0 Explorer with an *AUTOMATIC* transmission. There is some rewiring you have to do, nothing difficult at all, just look for it on here, it's info available online.

So it took a little convincing but the Bronco II did start, and after giving it some gas, it finally idled on its own for the first time in years. It eventually died because I only gave it a little bit of gas (tank is likely empty...), and it only started with the selector in R- NSS perhaps...

In any case, I have some literature now, it's time to get this thing at least running half decent, which likely will require a Duraspark Conversion.

 

[Hoosierman]

Anyone ever experience a headlight delay? I had some issues with headlights on my '88 Ranger but never like this. When I pull out the switch, it may take a few seconds for the low beams to turn on, but not for the highs. And sometimes switching from highs to lows results in a delay as long as eight seconds (I counted). Now I have the electrical diagrams but I wanted to know what y'all think could cause a delay like that, and it's intermittent.

Ya know... Ford really didn't need to add a headlight delay module, that's supposed to be for the wipers! Haha