Electrical Problem

I hate to even ask, but do you think maybe your engine froze up somehow??

You've already covered a lot of the obvious places to check. Somehow either the battery is not supplying the neccessary voltage or the ignition switch is not allowing voltage to get past it. Another possibility is a broken wire which you can find by by working backwards from the battery using a wiring diagram.

Jim,

Here's my mental check list:

1. Circuit to solenoid b/o. Not so in your case, the solenoid is pulling.

2. Solenoid b/o. Not so in your case, the solenoid is pulling.

3. Battery incapable of supplying sufficient current. I ASS U ME this is not the case here, as the battery is new.

4. Starter motor b/o. Not so in your in case, it tested good on the bench.

5. Starter relay inoperative or has high resistance contacts. Is your starter relay still in the circuit?

6. Battery cable to starter b/o or bad connections.

To check the last 2 things on my list, connect the lead of your voltmeter on the battery cable connection at the starter & have somebody turn the key to the start position. You should find at least 12.6 volts, or thereabouts. If not, the voltage is being dropped before it gets to your starter motor, by a bad connection, or burned contacts in the starter relay (if it's still in the circuit). I am again ASSUMING the connection to your starter is itself OK as you have recently un-made & remade that connection.

The new mini starters I am familiar with are built like Chevy's, they don't need an external starting relay, so the old Ford starting relay is redundant if it's still in the circuit. A quick way to bypass the starter relay is to remove one of the cable ends from the relay and then re-attach it to the same stud as the other cable. This is assuming you have a starter in which the solenoid functions as a starting relay too.

If everything else checks good, try turning the crank by hand like DeTom suggested.

Am I forgetting anything?

Your friend on & off the DTBB, George

Larry and I just spent about an hour on the phone testing a few more things. I believe the problem has been found.
Starter is sitting on the ground but wired to the harness. Turn the key, solenoid pops and starter motor spins. We'll see if anything changes tonight when I get home from work and put the starter back in the bell housing.
Will let you all know.
Thanks guys for the thoughts.

Did you clean the battery cables with the inside wire brush tool when you installed new battery.

I'm thinking it sounds like a bad/dirty connection.

quote:

2

Check pinon to ring gear mesh. You might have a mechanical bind between the starter and flywheel. The pinon moves with the soleniod but cannot engage into the ring gear. Spacers might be need to move the starter for the proper mesh.

Gosh George I hope I am wrong. The only way for an engine to freze up that way is for something really, really bad to happen.

quote:

Originally posted by Coz:
Starter is sitting on the ground but wired to the harness. Turn the key, solenoid pops and starter motor spins.

Coz,

The starter motor draws significantly less current unloaded, than when its actually cranking your engine. If there is a voltage drop somewhere, it will be worse when the amperage goes up.

George

Ahhhh, the sweet sound of 466 horses coming to life at 1:10 AM. I wonder if my neighbors appreciated it as much as I did

Here are the final steps that lead me to the problem. Put both starters on the bench again. This time used a spare 12 battery I have and connected battery positive to the positive on the solenoid, ground to the starter body. Put the remote starter on the positive solenoid and the solenoid trigger tab and squeezed the trigger.

My original starter: solenoid kicked out and motor ran like a bat out of hell. The NEW Hall starter that I've had for 3 years & never been on a car, solenoid popped out and the starter motor barely turned. I could stop it with my hand. So the Hall starter is dead. Will have it repaired.

Next, pulled wiring harness from the bulkhead back and laid them on the ground under the car. Just to check, hooked up the Hall starter, turned the key, click, click, nothing more. Hooked up my original starter, click, click, nothing more

Took voltage readings. (Exchanged the old battery for a new one today) 14 volts at the battery, 14 volts at the main power 4 wire block in the steering column, 14 volts at the battery cable connected to the solenoid.

Hmmm....only 2 other connections. One is the female terminal that attaches to the solenoid trigger tab and the other is another hot lead from the ignition. They felt solid, showed no signs of burning or corrosion. Being there was nothing left electrical connection wise, I cut both ends off, stripped the wires and put a new connections on both ends.

Hall starter still dead. My original started worked like it should when the key was turned on to start the car sitting on the ground

Fingers crossed, put my original starter back on the bell housing, reconnected the 2 wires and battery cable to the solenoid, turned the key and the biggest grin on my face you can imagine appeared

Problem ended up being the 2 wires that connect to the solenoid. One being the solenoid trigger wire and the other being the power lead from the ignition. Battery cable to solenoid was fine. Needless to say, something so simple turned out to be quite the adventure. But once again, learned a lot.

Cost of repair: 0.76 cents, Time figuring it out: 8 hours.
End result, PRICELESS !
For everything else, there's MasterCard.

Jim
I'm glad youre back in the saddle! Giddi up cowboy and put da spurs to her!
Emery