89stangbanga

Same thing happened to me. Replaced pos and neg battery cables, re grounded to the block, changed starter relay, would do the same thing when i tried to crank, lost all power. Kept bitching and moaning, my posts are tight what's going on. I take off the clamp to the battery post and replace it with one that's clean and fits a little better. Fires up every single time now

PRO50SC

LOL apparently so. G/D interweb!!

LOUDexhaust

Well I went to start it today and it worked again. I cleaned off all the terminals with sand paper afterwards, we'll see what happens in the long term.

LOUDexhaust

Well it's back! Went to start it again yesterday and the solenoid clicked, and I lost all power. This was after cleaning the battery terminals and connectors on the solenoid with fine grit sand paper. What puzzles me is why it either works, or absolutely does NOT. What else would cause me to lose all power besides battery terminals or the solenoid and what's connected to it? I guess for now I'll clean the connectors again and recheck my ground strap to the engine.

EDIT:
I was able to get more gunk off the battery terminal connectors and I moved the ground strap. Why is there a ground strap in the first place, going to the engine? It seems the engine is already grounded in several places (engine mounts, trans to cross member to floor...)? Well anyway, it started after I was done. I'll have to try several times again before I have the confidence to leave home with it. My pos 93f150 is my DD right now, kinda scary.

mgmuscari

Try replacing the solenoid. Is this happening when it rains?

I just had the starter terminal on my solenoid ground out the other day due to rain... when I swapped it for a new one, I could hear water sloshing inside (lol). As a test, put the car in neutral, turn the key to RUN, and then disconnect the starter cable from the solenoid... touch it to the hot terminal. If the car starts instead of draining the power you have a short inside the solenoid relay.

The solenoid is a cheap part and they're prone to failure... try replacing it just for good measure, and if that's not the problem, you're only out like $15 .

LOUDexhaust

I did short the solenoid with a pliers the other day and it didn't do anything, I was afraid of testing it further. I started thinking that a starter solenoid wouldn't be responsible for killing all power to the car, but maybe it does somehow? I guess I'll pick up a new solenoid tomorrow just to see, like you say.

mgmuscari

Yeah if the relay inside shorts out to ground, you'll get a huge current drain there... I realized that if the short were somewhere else I probably would've blown a fusible link. Since there's no fusible link between the battery and the starter solenoid, you can try to crank it all you want and all you'll do is cook the positive battery cable. Like I said, disconnect the starter cable and touch it directly to the hot terminal with the key in the run position (make sure it's in neutral!). If your starter then cranks, then you definitely have a short in the solenoid.

Other than that, you might be shorting from the starter cable to ground (check the cable for melted insulation near the exhaust headers, and look for anything rubbing against frame or engine block).

If it's neither of those things then you've got a short in the starter (but this is probably unlikely).


As near as I can figure, when I was driving around in the rain the other day, water spilled off the hood down into the engine compartment (since it only has those bumpers and no weather stripping) and got into the solenoid. You wouldn't notice this while driving because the solenoid only engages when you turn the key to crank.

LOUDexhaust

I have a mini-starter with its own little solenoid so my starter cable is on the hot side of the main solenoid already (there is a small cable going from switched end of main solenoid to the solenoid on the starter) so I'm guessing if there was a short in the starter cable, my battery would be dead. And is shorting across the solenoid posts with a pliers not the same as moving the cable from the switched side to the hot side? The pliers did not work so if that is a proper test, I guess I didn't clean the connectors well enough or there is an elusive short somewhere which doesn't seem to drain my battery but is severe enough to kill power to my car!

Jfsram

I know it's pretty much impossible to reach but next time this happens. Try getting a booster cable from the + on the battery to the big lug on the starter.

Sometimes the battery cable will corrode inside and pass voltage. So you will see battery voltage at the starter but only a portion of amperage can pass and without full amperage the starter will not crank.