electrictya no starta!

[oldsaltfish]

This is going to be a long one.. I drove my 92 ranger to work. Drove it home in the afternoon no problem. Arrived at the house and shut it down.
Got up the next morning (cold in my area) tried to start, just a relay click. Tryed to jump, same click.
Got home went to the parts store got a starter. click!
Replaced the relay. click!
Check all the fuses. Good. click!
Read for resistance on positive cables. tone (good) click!
Check voltage at starter 12.5, battery 12.6. (good)click!
replaced negative cable re-read everything battery 12.5, ignition post at starter 12.2, positive cable at starter 12.5.. click!
re-attched everything turned the key and burnt the entire siliniod wire to battery post and to the relay.
Felas i am in some kind of dyer straits, and at my wits end.
the only thing that require replacing is the positive cable, and the ignition switch which I have know idea of the location.

 

[Nhaz]

The first thing that comes to mind is. You had a bad starter. And got unlucky and bought a bad starter (most are rebuilds anyways) . I would pull the starter and make sure it spins on the bench with 12 volts applied.

If it does spin on the bench. Get a friend and check to see if the starter is getting power at the end of its wire. Have him "start" the truck with no starter in it while you are on the floor with a meter checking the starter wire. Back track from there.

If that isn't it. Load test the battery. Don't just check its volts. You can have good voltage and a bad battery. I've seen it and replaced many in my fleet of electric golf carts. If you don't have access to a load tester the quick and dirty method is again have a friend start the truck with everything attached. While hes doing that go put the meter on the battery. If its dropping below 8 volts while hes doing that and you are still hearing the click its a weak or bad battery.


Its also entirely possible to have a bad connection that acts normally until there is a heavy load on it, like the starter motor. Those are harder to track down. To do so make sure the starter is hooked up and repeat the backtracking process from the floor backwards. That sucks I know.

I also know some of that you've done I hope anything I added helped.

 

[SoLongStang9499]

See when your battery was manufactured, if it is at or around 5 years old, change it out. Usually batteries show there age over time, but in cold weather they can drop out just over night. If your battery is new-ish, try jumping it again with good gauge jumper cables ( no walmart specials! ) . It sounded like when you jumped it you didnt have a good sized jumper, or the doner battery didnt have enough CCA to crank the motor. Just throwing out ideas Good luck!

 

[oldsaltfish]

Hey Folks found the problem, positive cable was actually corroded. I want to post a pic, new to this forum type stuff. sorry I'm not computer crazy. how do I post a pic of the problem?