So my inexperienced 17 year old was going to take my 1988 F150 out to drive to get some experience with the manual transmission. The story goes like this. Jarrod and his buddy started up the truck and we were just sitting there BSing. Then they noticed it was reving high. He didn't know why or how to fix it so he let off the clutch. I am guessing he had it in gear because he said it lurched forward over the parking stop and almost hit someone. He and his friend couldn't get it to start after that and had to push it back into the parking spot. I tried to start it a week later (because I was sure it was just a simple kill) and it didn't start, no juice, no noise, no click nothing. Acts like a dead battery. Tried to jump it. No luck. Solenoid wouldn't spark when touching a screw driver over both +/-. Just got a new battery and new solenoid put in and still no juice. Any ideas on what my kid screwed up? Thanks, frustrated mom.

 

Here are some checks you might ask him to do,
Do the headlights work, if so , with the headlights on , what do the headlights do when an attempt is made to start it? If they go dim, there is possibly a poor connection or the starter maybe was damaged. If the lights don't do anything but stay at the same briteness level, there is probably an open circuit from the solenoid to the starter itself .
Before going any further, let us know what results you got up to this point, thanks.