Hijacking the subject:: Ford F250 Starter problem
"Steve W." wrote:
Mike Spencer wrote:
May I highjack this, since Gunner seems to have hit on a fix?
I have an '87 F-250 that won't start when it's hot. Let it sit days,
weeks, even months, indoors or out, and it fires right up. Even when
it's near 0F. Run it for a few minutes and it'll start again.
But run it until it get thoroughly warmed up, shut it off, and it
behaves as if it had a nearly dead battery: a-WUMP a-WUMP a-wump aaaa
clickety-click. Let it sit for 10 to 20 minutes (depending on the
outdoor temp) and it fires right up again. PITA at gas stations.
Engine is a replacement, the smaller-than-original V-8 (I forget the
name/displacement) so the truck is a bit underpowered but starts and
runs fine except for this not-when-hot thing. I'm a former mechanic,
I've taken it to a guy who's good, we feel like we've tried and/or
replaced everything.
Know any magic tweaks or arcane bits of Ford lore that might help me?
If it has the same style starter as a GM the problem is likely the same.
The starter solenoid is getting heat soaked and causing problems. The
trick on the GM units is to install a jumper strap across the large
terminals on the starter and install a Ford style starter solenoid on
the fender.
I had that problem on a '66 GTO. I replaced the factory battery
cables with #1 AWG welding cable and never had any more trouble. The
mechanics couldn't agree what the problem was. Bad battery. (new) Bad
starter. (Rebuilt it myself) Bad Solenoid. (New)
I measured the drop across the battery cables and found a total drop
of nine volts. The new cables reduced that to about 1.5 volts.
|