Click but no crank? Ideas?
 

Hey there, first post so thanks in advance for any help!

1989 F250 V8 5 Speed 4x4

Up until this evening, always started and ran strong. Have a load of landscape blocks. Pulled up, unloaded half, moved over to the other side of the house to unload the rest. Fired up fine, no hesitation. Turned off the engine, unloaded for 10-15 minutes and went to move again.

Click.

Battery is fine. Tried jumpstarting anyway. Tapped the solenoid and starter.

Click.

Tried jumping the starter from the solenoid by connecting the trigger and positive. Ignition on, in neutral and even clutch in.

Click.

Ideas for other things to check before I start buying parts?

Thanks again,

Troy

Put the headlights on. Have someone watch the headlites while you try to start it. If the lights go dim, starter is shorted.
If lights don't go dim either solenoid is defective , cable to starter is corroded or starter is open internally.

Ok, pulled the starter and took it in. It failed the bench test so picked up a new one.

Installed it.

Click, click, click, click

This time coming from the solenoid. Ran back, grabbed a new solenoid and some wire brushes. Cleaned all the cables and installed.

Click (back from near the starter)

Pulled the battery and replaced with my 27 series marine battery for my boat. Brand new and fully charged.

Same thing.

At an absolute loss. Any other ideas?

Everything goes dim when I try and start. This is with the new starter and solenoid. Thoughts?

Cables or ground connection.

Thanks for all your input. This was my next thought. Been doing some research. Any specifics from your experience where to start?

Thanks again,
Troy

Usually start right from the battery. Don't just look at the connections , loosen the fastening bolts/nuts and clean them while you are in there.

you might have two wires going to the starter the big one goes to the bolt on the starter and then you have a small one that clips via a blade connector or some other fashion connecting to the solenoid on the starter

You know, we take a lot of things for granted and the mention of the two simple wires sounds simple to those of us who do this every day, but to someone that is not absolutely sure, it is a good point to cover. Simple things like replacing a fuse and putting the replacement in the wrong slots can drive someone trying to help up the wall.
No one is exempt from making an occasional slip every now and then, most likely from overconfidence or fatigue. Anyway does the small wire at the starter solenoid have a good solid connection?

I hope it is a easy as just missing two simple wires!

The starter on this model on has one heavy gauge wire that leads to the fender mounted solenoid. The connections are good at both ends. I pulled the starter back out just to make sure. Some one had recommended see if the engine would manually turn. Due to its precarious position behind my house, I put in gear and gave it a push with my Jeep just a foot or so. Prior to that I marked the crank pulley and belt. After the push, they were not in the same position so it did move. Engine not seized. Just trying to rule everything out.

So if there is just one wire running from the solenoid to the starter, and if I try and jump the starter directly at the solenoid to no avail, what other wires should I check? Terminals at the batter are good and cleaned as well as all connections at the solenoid and starter.

I'm stumped?

Once in a while the ground for the relay on the fender well is not all it should be and the relay will not make strong enough contact to allow the heavy current the starter needs to go through. Do you have a test light or voltmeter available to use ?

take each battery cable off the battery 1 at a time and clean them up ! it could be corroded battery terminals or the solenoid is sticking !

Put a new ground wire from the battery to the motor..make sure nthe connection is clean at the motor

are the battery terminals clean and tight ? maybe it,s the solenoid ! the solenoid is what kicks the starter in and it has to be good, the battery has to be fully charged and the battery terminals has to be clean and tight !

I do have a multimeter now. Mine disappeared so just picked a new one up. I am going to test the voltage at the battery and at the battery connection on the solenoid. Assuming those check, I will test the voltage at the starter when the ignition is turned. Other points to test?

Sadly, I am going to take this new starter in to be tested as well. It only takes 5 minutes to pull off. Who know with remanufactured parts...

Thank you for all your input. This one is REALLY puzzling to me.

To troubleshoot the ground, I took jumper cable and attached it to the negative on the battery and grounded it to a couple different spots on the engine block but got the same click each time!

That ground wire attached to the block is damn near impossible to get to! If I have to replace it, it's getting bolted elsewhere.

Whelp...

SHE RUNS!!

Thanks to everyone who provided input. To have such complete strangers offer all this help and advise is truly amazing.

After much racking the brain and troubleshooting it came down to something simple and stupid. The positive battery connection had corrosion hidden under the sheath behind the terminal. It still registered 12V at the solenoid but for whatever reason was creating a short when starting. My IT director at work actually figured it out. He used to be a switch tech for Nokia and couple of thing caught his ear. Anyway, cut the wire back to good wire and for good measure replaced the terminals. When I can make it back to O'Reilly's I will be purchasing new cables as well.

What I don't get is why my old starter failed at the bench test? Oh well. I kept the $39 remanufactured one and called it all good.

Anyway, thank you all once again. I can get back to work now! I'm sure I'll be seeing you around here.

Sincerely,

Troy