Alright, I'm about to get my truck towed, I just seem to be running out of options for a shade tree guy to try.

I live in Texas, and it's usually quite warm here, and the winter has been pretty mild. My truck usually starts quickly, although sometimes it runs a bit rough when it's below 40~30*F till it warms up [shakes like a broken motor mount with gas applied.] This last Wednesday, it had snowed the day and night before [quite rare here] and when I went out to start my truck, it would not turn over. I tried to let the glow plugs run for a bit longer, about 1 minute, but still nothing. I managed to pretty much kill the batteries trying to start it, and had to go to work, so I left for about 8 hours. On my lunch break, I attempted to jump it with my girlfriends '06 camery, however quickly learned this wouldn't quite work. At this point, I tried to remove the batteries to have them charged at a local auto store only to discover that there is quite a bit of corrosion, and the positive terminals were stuck on.

Using my $10 POS multimeter, during this process, I see that the GPR appears to be working, 11.5~12v from the passenger side post, and when the key is on about 10.5v from the drivers side post.

I managed to get the terminals off the battery with some baking soda and water, take them up to orielys to be charged. I made a mistake in not having them tested right after they were charged, thinking I could do this with my multimeter, but from what I can tell, mine will not measure above 10 amps DC. I did see 13.5v from both batteries. I get the batteries back into the truck, and start trying to crank, it appears to almost catch, then looses all oil pressure. I check the ground, and under the engine, nothing appears to have broken, and there is nothing on the ground. I check the oil level, and it's a bit low, so I dump the rest of the rotella I have, bringing the level to about half way. I then charge my batteries in the truck for 40 minutes with my GFs car, and attempt to crank it, oil pressure returns, but by the time it does, the voltage appears to be too low to start. It sounds a bit better this time, sounding like it almost turns over. So now the truck has been sitting for about 20 hours with low voltage, I suspect they may be bad.

A couple of truck details: 2000 7.3L psd, 280k miles on the clock, with little to no maintenance paperwork.

I'm just wondering quite a few things at this point, not sure how to move forward. How much cranking time should I see from charged batteries? I seem to get about three good attempts of 10~15 seconds. Should I attempt to jump it somehow with another dual-battery diesel with two sets of cables? Is the 10.5v from the GPR's driver side post bad, should I see a solid 12v+ from both posts? Since I have no maintenance history, I can only suspect that all the glowplugs are original, and probably need to be replaced, will it start without this if it gets warmer [so I can move the truck to a place I can do the replacement]. Would plugging in the block heater help at all? Let me know if there is anymore information I can provide, it ran quite well before all this. I suspect the batteries may be shot at this point, they don't appear to be the originals, but I have no idea of their age, and I've killed them three times now.

The oil level is half way, should I fill this all the way up? Let me know if you live in Dallas, and can find any kindness in your heart to help. There is plenty of brew for anyone that would be willing to assist.

 

You should be able to crank numerous times IF the batteries are in good shape. IF the batteries, GPR and GP's are up-to-par, it should start on the first crank. To determine the condition of the batteries, you need to pull them out and have them load tested.

You could try, but you do not need tp use two sets of cables...the batteries in our trucks are connected parallel - positive to positive, negative to negative. This keeps it a 12v system with double the amperage capacity.

Yes, IF the batteries are in good shape...A fully charged, good set of batteries should get you above 11.5v with the GP's on.

The computer (PCM needs to see at least 10.5 volts before the truck will start, it will still crank at that voltage, but won't start). It wouldn't hurt to run the block heater, but that won't help IF the batteries are goners. Start with the load testing of the batteries at your local auto store or shop.

Not necessary, but wouldn't hurt. Free beer??? The metro area of Dallas ought to have a lot of Ford 7.3's heading your way !

 

Will do, should have done it properly the first time

I'll pick up some oil while I get the batteries load tested.

One more thing I did forget to mention, the coldest temp I saw was about 15*F, is this low enough to where I would have any worry of fuel gelling? Also of note is that I don't think I've seen any white smoke or anything while cranking.

 

Good luck. I'm in Houston, got into the late 30's here a few days ago. Truck didn't notice a thing, cranked over quicker than usual I thought which was wonderful as I was expecting the worst.

2001 F250 7.3. 300k+ on the title.

 

It's not the temperature so much as the number of hours at that temperature. My guess, is that your fuel is not gelled. The reason, I am guessing, that you see no white smoke is the voltage is too low for the PCM to instruct the IDM to trigger injector solenoids. This is a guess on my part .

 

As to the fuel gelling, assuming you have winter fuel in it, no. If you have summer time fuel, then gelling or clouding could have happened. You can open the drain on the fuel filter and see if it runs out, and what color it is. Good batteries make a world of difference on how these trucks start especially in cold weather. While your truck was cranking, was there any smoke coming out of the tailpipe? Plugging the block heater in will make it crank and start easier, assuming you have 10.5 volts or more going to the PCM. But if you don't have the voltage right, all the heat in the world won't do any good. These trucks will start in sub zero weather without the block heater if everything else is good. The block heaters do make them start easier, and can warm the truck up a little quicker!

 

I see you answered the smoke question, Sorry.

 

The temps you posted aren't cold enough to cause fuel gelling. My truck has sat outside overnight in temps under 20° without gelling.

Those numb nuts at O'rielly's should have load tested the batts after charging them.

When you have weak batteries you can get into a "Catch 22" situation by letting the GPs heat up before trying to start.
You'll have nice warm combustion chambers but not enough voltage to fire the injectors.

 

Yeah, partly my bad, since the truck was running so well before the cold, I just assumed the batteries were still good [we all know what happens when you assume ] I think I'm gonna replace the GPR since it seems fairly cheap and easy, and I'm seeing low voltage from it. I'll try and pick up a replacement with the oil I get while charging/testing the batteries.

Hahaha, this is pretty much the hell I'm stuck in. So, if I were to get help from another big diesel jumping, it should start up and run even with bad batteries right? They just won't hold a charge, and I'll be back at square one when the truck shuts off?

 

I also live in Dallas but out of town today thru sunday(deer season).
Befor the snow when it got down to 40 or below my 99 f350 w/371K
would not start I had replaced the batteries as I have to every 3 years
or so in October. Then replaced GPR and still had the problem at 40 or
below. Learned from this site that these 7.3 have to spin at 120 RPMs
or better to start. My starter sounded fine (I thought) but with 371K
I figured it could not hurt to love on it a little and replaced the original
strarter. To my surprise it sounded a lot better and have had no other problem sence.

 

You can't have the other truck follow you around.

The batts probably need to be replaced. Good standing voltage alone does not mean a battery has good capacity. Just the GPs sucked those batts down to under 11 volts.

You should also check to be sure the alt is putting out good voltage. Either remove it and have it tested or test it in place once the truck is running.

 

So just for my piece of mind, it wouldn't provide good troubleshooting info to try and jump it from another 7.3L? I read a lot of conflicting info about if this is possible or not with jumper cables. I'm gonna haul the batteries up to the auto store regardless, just kills me to be stuck up at work while they just sit there.

 

It's probably the batts. That starter should be "turning it over" like a machine gun and it should "fire" up. You should be able to turn it over with the starter a hell of a lot more times than 3 or 4 for 15 secs. I just put a new set in my truck since its been getting cold here and mine started to not want to turn over well.

 

Well, it does crank quite a bit every time I have them charged. After watching some GPR videos, this looks very familiar:


The plan right now is to take the batteries back out and have them charged/inspected, buy a GPR, replace that, top off the oil a bit, and see where that leaves me.

In this video:


The GPR appears to make a pretty loud noise. Is this typical, or just something to do with the GPR he is using? The O'Reily has Motorcraft, so I figured I'd just go with that. He also describes the ~1v of drop between the 100 amp posts that I see in mine. I'll triple check this when I get home before taking the batteries out.

 

You can arc across the terminals of the GPR for about 30 seconds or so with a screwdriver, then try to start it.