2.3L ('83-'97) Starter engages but motor acts like it's pressurized and stopping it from turning over

[James ray]

Had to rebuild wire harness from scratch so if I pull a spark plug it turns over easier but not perfect can pm anyone vids and or pics I need my truck something serious if anyone has a idea y it's not turning over we with ease I mean I just don't know bad starter? Bad ground? Wat caused this

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Did you do anything else other than wire harness? Perhaps timing is too far advanced?

 

[scotts90ranger]

In an '86 the starter circuit is fairly simple, to get that scenario you either have a weak starter or a wire somewhere is not big enough to handle the amps. For wiring there should be a big positive wire going from the battery to the starter relay on the fender then another big wire going from the other side of the relay down to the starter. For the ground side there's normally a ground wire that goes from the battery post to the frame rail then over to one of the starter bolts. If all that is in place and reasonably sized then the other possibility for a bad connection is in the starter relay, for that there are a couple things to try, one is to pull the small wire off and take a screwdriver or wrench and jump that to the wire from the battery to see if the starter engages decent. The next is to take a wrench or something and jump the two big terminals, if the starter works better when you jump the two big posts then the relay has burnt contacts on the inside, I just bought one on amazon even a motorcraft and it was like $25 maybe $35, don't remember...

 

[James ray]

Did you do anything else other than wire harness? Perhaps timing is too far advanced?

Nope I parked it to replace valve cover gasket and I started it up and it keeps arcing somewhere in the relays so I tried to find it and repair it then ended up with the mess I'm in lol just trying to find the right guid to match black to blck I guess nothing I can find will work

 

[James ray]

In an '86 the starter circuit is fairly simple, to get that scenario you either have a weak starter or a wire somewhere is not big enough to handle the amps. For wiring there should be a big positive wire going from the battery to the starter relay on the fender then another big wire going from the other side of the relay down to the starter. For the ground side there's normally a ground wire that goes from the battery post to the frame rail then over to one of the starter bolts. If all that is in place and reasonably sized then the other possibility for a bad connection is in the starter relay, for that there are a couple things to try, one is to pull the small wire off and take a screwdriver or wrench and jump that to the wire from the battery to see if the starter engages decent. The next is to take a wrench or something and jump the two big terminals, if the starter works better when you jump the two big posts then the relay has burnt contacts on the inside, I just bought one on amazon even a motorcraft and it was like $25 maybe $35, don't remember...

I'm leaving more towered your deductions here considering I just rebuilt this starter and tested it it's good but the idea the ground wire is to small or not grounded well enough is a big probility I just don't know how now to locate the source issue
Any suggestions

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Google "voltage drop testing"

 

[JohnPsz]

This might sound like a dumb suggestion, but did you make sure the wires at the battery are tight? My son's ranger did the same thing your describing. After troubleshooting and just before we went to replace the battery (thought it might be dead), we found that the wires going into the terminal were loose and wasn't allowing enough amperage to flow to the starter and just making the solenoid/relays go crazy. It acted fine and showed decent voltage when not trying to start, but once you tried to start it, it didn't have any umph to turn the motor over, and was just a loose wire.