electrical problem no start

[secret8gent]

Hi all,

Periodic lurker here, finally signed up today to post a question after a few searches didn't bring up a close match.

My ranger has been sitting for a few weeks, went to go move it the other day and at first the starter was clicking with no cranking. I was thinking low battery and brought out the jump pack to give it a little more juice and now when I try to crank it all power shuts off for about two minutes (no lights or anything, it seems). After it 'cools' off power comes back on. Now any attempt to start it (with or without a jump) seems to repeat the situation.

Going to take a crack at it today (my shortlist is the starter, battery, and relays), just wanted to know if anyone had any other tips or has seen something like this before.

I'll post up here when I find the solution.

Thanks.

 

[secret8gent]

looks like the starter itself.

starter relay checked, sounded fine (swapped it with the blower relay, also no change).
pulling it and trying to start didn't cause the 'black out' symptom.
a quick check of the battery V also looked fine. (and it can run the headlights brightly, etc)

looks like i'm going to pull the starter next.

any theories on what happened? sounds like a short in the starter, but maybe only when it is engaged?

guess i'll know more soon.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Did you clean your battery terminals sounds like a bad connection to me the starter draws alot of power just flipping switches dont mean much somtimes just turning the terminals will tell you depending on the condition of the terminals wether yo clean or replace.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Oh yea starter solenoid terminals also

 

[kimcrwbr1]

take the neg off the battery when messing with the pos wires

 

[secret8gent]

any tips for getting at the solenoid connections?

i see what you're saying about battery connections, but i'm not sure how that would explain the 'blackout' i'm seeing for a few minutes each time.

thanks for the reply!

 

[Irokranger93]

Oh yea starter solenoid terminals also

same thing for me
I thing kill it your starter relay fender mount

try two through wire setup from the starter relay that has run key

 

[modelageek]

This is an unusall problem. This truck does not have a fender mounted solenoid, it has a relay in the DB. I would break out the multimeter and start testing for power especially during the "blackout"....................just a guess could the ignition switch be acting up.............is the truck a standeard...........does it "pop start"

 

[nacho98ranger]

power problem

hey i had the same problem took me two weeks to figure out one night drinking beer looking at it hoping what would it be i cranket it and a big spark happend under the hood and it was a ground on my cab cleand it and started right up so what that outher guy said cheack every ground and conection that matters

 

[secret8gent]

hey all thanks for posting.

All seems to be well now.

I dropped the starter and did some bench testing (everything looked good on the bench - only thing i didn't try was running it under a mechanical 'load'), while i had it off i cleaned all the connections. Cleaned the battery terminals too. Also turned over the engine by hand to make sure it hadn't somehow seized... (ps is the main pulley bolt normal or reverse thread?)

Put it back on and it started up no problems.

So... what happened? I'd pin it either on the connectors somehow getting cruddy enough over a few weeks to make it weak, or the pinion got jammed up on the flywheel.. (didn't try banging the hell out of it before i took it down to see if it could free itself up, oh well.)

also, it's an auto~

Thanks again.

 

[secret8gent]

the saga continues....

today similar crank but no start type issues... banged on it a little and fussed a bit an eventually it started... stopped to get gas (and shut the truck down), and couldn't get it started back up (banging did not prove fruitful this time).

tow truck guy tried a jump pack and the usual stuff (ended up causing the same blackout stuff) before he concluded it was the starter.

Looks like i'm going to slap a new one on there and see what happens... (probably have the old one 'tested' at autozone or similar)

side note: i'm surprised there is no dedicated ground lead for the starter assembly... (seems to just ground through the bellhousing)

 

[secret8gent]

it was a ground problem