truck not wanting to start, tach quit working at same time

[racsan]

dont know if its related or not but this morning before work the ranger didnt want to start, '93 4.0 it finnally did but i noticed going down the road the tach wasnt working, went to come home, there was some buzzing/clicking from under the hood, had to hit the key a few times and it finnally turned over and ran, tach started working on the way home, stalled out at one point, it did restart but acted like a low battery, tach didnt work after this. got it home and load tested battery, shows a good 200 cca under load and goes back to 12 v after load test. dont know if tach is a seperate issue, i just want the thing to start, could the battery be just low enough that its having issues? has oringinal starter, 130,000 miles. dont know if this sytem uses a seperate driver solenoid like alot of earlier fords or if its al together like g.m. does (and the old 3.0 taurus we once had) going to see waht i can find, not a good time to be down to one vehicle, and the "other" one is a S-10 blazer with tires in bad need of replacement! thanks for any help/thoughts. Dave.

 

[rtg143]

A low battery can cause a lot of problems. Did you see what the voltage was at the battery when it's running? It should show 13.5-14.5v if the charging system is working.

 

[Duane867]

Looks like its removable from the starter motor, by checking with all data pro that is..
200 cc amps is pretty low. Thats a little more then a motor cycle battery cc amp.
Low end car and truck batteries have at least 550. ( cheap ones ) and turn over pretty crappy in cold weather too. Im not an electronical wizard though.
Those numbers may be what the test is supposed to result in ?
Check your positive and negative connections at the battery and at the solenoid.

 

[racsan]

im a little late getting back here to report, but i was succesful and here is what i found, clicked like crazy when tried jumpimg the solenoid at the wheelwell, thought for the heck of it id pull the battery, clean it up and wire brush the terminals real good. i did that and load tested the battery on the porch, it showed about 200 before, but after cleaning the terminals it showed a bit above 600. put it back in and by jumpering the solenoid, the motor spun over pretty good, climbed behind the wheel and it fired right up, and the tach is working again (altough i still say thats another electrical gremlin and cant possibly be related. i was really worried that i needed a starter, it does pay to start with the basics and check everything over, btw dont know how old the battery is, but it is a 850 cca. probly around 5-6 years old, didnt look it up in my log book.

 

[rtg143]

If it's a Ford battery, they last a long time. I have one in my Crown vic that's 7 years old and still runs everything.

 

[racsan]

no. its a valuecraft or something odd like that, it did have a motorcraft battery when i got it, they do go for quite awhile. started fine everytime today, tach still working too, maybe my ground was so bad that the tach was somehow affected, i know from time to time i'll have lights on the dash that wont work then mysteriously work later, like the highbeam indicator, right turn indicator, dash cluster backlight on the left side of the dash. im just happy its starting, roughly 200 for another starter plus the work of changing it, looks like id have to pull the front driveshaft, and i have no garage, everything i do is out in the open, sometimes its nice, sometimes it aint.

 

[rtg143]

Those xonnections can cause all kinds of problems. We had a Crown Vic that when we replaced the battery, the door locks wuldn't work. We disconnected and reconnected the battery and all was well.

 

[Duane867]

Glad you got her running.
Low juice will bring out the gremlins and have you chasing your tail for sure.
Thats a starter relay on the fender well, the solenoid is on the starter. Be careful jumping the relay like that ( or the solenoid on the starter for that mater) you can get a pretty serious electrical burn that way. They sell a little push button engine starter you can hook up to either and push the button to turn it over. Cost about $12.00 and will save your fingers and hands.

 

[feellnfroggy]

200 cca is not enough, you should have 900, but your batt most likely lost charge due to low alternator. Charge it get it running, take it to parts store, have them test both.