Hey guys I'm a newbie who just bought my first truck. It's a manual '84 F100 with a straight 6.

I just bought it a few weeks ago and started to notice it being harder and harder to start, but a few days ago I tried to start it and the whole truck went dead. I tested the battery - good. I replaced the terminal connections and sanded down the grounds. I replaced the starter relay. I replaced the starter today. Every step ended in the same result. I turn the key and the truck makes one click and goes completely dead.

I've read through a handful of threads, but haven't had any luck. I tried to connect the hot lead from the battery to the S terminal on the relay, but I get nothing. I also tried connecting the + lead from the relay to the S terminal, but all I get is a clicking from the relay.

I'm at a loss, so any help will be appreciated.

 

First off, welcome to the forum

Everything you mention seems like it leads to a bad battery. You say you tested it, can you tell us exactly what you did to test it?

Have you tried jump starting it? If so, does it crank up then?

 

I agree with Kevin, it sounds like an expired battery. Rapid-fire clicking of the solenoid is symptomatic of not enough electricity making its way to it; a single thunk means it's working but implies the starter motor isn't getting enough power to turn over the engine (which, I'm assuming, is possible to do).

Merely measuring voltage at the battery doesn't give the full story - put some load on it (e.g. starter motor) and what does the voltage drop to?

Turn on the headlights and try to start it with the key, what do the headlights do?

Can you try swapping batteries with one from a different car?

Yes, welcome to FTE.

 

Thanks for the welcome! This forum is amazing. Tons of good info. I tested and charged the battery at Autozone. When the lights would work, I'd try to crank it, but they'd get killed too. When it was running, the lights would dim at a stoplight. It won't crank with a jump either. I'll try to swap out a battery and see what happens.

Random info: I installed a cd player a day or two before this started happening. It's hooked up to the ignition and cigar leads. I don't know if that is related, but it seemed odd to me to start having issues so soon after.

 

it's possible yes. pull the fuses to them both and see what happens.

It is possible also, that your battery isn't getting charged. Do a simple test when you get it running. Pull the negitive cable off the battery and see if it keeps running. If it dies...you got charging issues. It should be able to run off the alternator alone.

I say charging issues as it would not neccesarily be the alternator. Could be regulater or wiring as well.

With a fully charged battery, you should have 12-13 volts at the battery terminals. When running you should have around 13.5 volts indicating the charging system is putting current into the battery.

 

Where is my Tim Taylor thing... gotta go find that, hang on....

OK, insert Tim Taylor sound effects from the TV series Home Improvement:

Tim Allen's Home Improvement Grunt - YouTube


The factory provides a yellow/black-hash wire for switched & fused DC radio power, a fused green/yellow-stripe wire for always-on power for memories, and a light blue/red-stripe wire for fused & dimmable backlight lighting.

The cigarette lighter is switched, the ignition is switched (bad place to tap into IMHO) so I'd be surprised if the radio maintained any sort of memory wrt date & time & stations.

It may be that your radio is always on when it shouldn't be (meaning you hooked it up to God knows what), you wouldn't be the first person to show up here complaining of a dead battery after installing a radio.

 

The lights working until you try to crank it, then everything is lost, usually ends up being a bad connection somewhere. Typically, a bad connection at the battery.
I'd reccomend checking every connection for cleanliness and tightness.

 

Lol. Guilty...I'll switch all that up tomorrow. The truck's wires are all sorts of hacked up. After reading through here, seems like that's pretty standard.

I switched out the battery today, but nothing changed. I'll try pulling the fuses and the other suggestions and let you guys know what happens.

 

Looks like there was no ground going to the starter. Put one in and now it runs fine.

 

Good thing it was something simple. Welcome to the forum, atxF100!

 

No ground going to the starter?? There is no ground going to the starter, it is grounded by being bolted to the engine.

What exactly did you do? Did you run a separate ground wire to the starter?

The fact that you had problems with your lights dimming and other issues leads me to believe you have a bigger grounding issue than just the starter

 

Yeah there is a separate ground running to the starter now. So looks like I should investigate the ground issue? Where do I start?

 

Thanks! Hope it's still simple...

 

What do you have the negative cable running to? Should be grounded right to the engine block. You then should have a ground cable running from the drivers side rear of the engine into the cab.

 

This is the guy who wires his stereo into the ignition & cigarette lighter and wonders why stuff doesn't work.



Kevin - He has a 6-banger, I think his battery negative cable (out of the factory) leads first to the frame and then to the engine block somewhere. The 6-bangers - at least some of them - are weird & different, I know that.