Ok so I have a 97 7.3l. 244k on the clock. I have replaced the glow plugs, glow plug relay, batteries and positive battery cable in the last 4 months. I usually plug her in n she still has a hard extended crank n today it drained the batteries. I try to jump it off my gfs car but it seems like the battery doesn't even take a charge off it it just drains it more when I crank. I attempted to jump the starter solenoid n the starter would crank extremely slowly n then just stopped n wouldn't crank. I am at my Witts end with this damned truck. It has given me huge problems this whole fall and winter with starting. Does this sound like the starter solenoid or the starter it self?

 

Sounds like the starter is dragging to me. That's what my truck did right after I bought her last year.

 

Starter is dragging? Basically it's dead?

 

Did you jump the solenoid on the starter, or the relay on the fender?

Right now you have two problems. You should slow charge the batteries to first see what the cranking issue is. The long crank time is a separate issue, probably related to the glow plugs.

 

If you don't have a bad ground , battery , or power connection , sounds like a bad starter to me also . By the way , new batteries can go bad ! I had a pallet full of new and nearly new batteries that were bad when I worked at a parts store in the 90's . We started testing all batteries before a customer left with one .

 

I don't think it's a bad ground they all look good n clean. Tight. Batteries were tested earlier today just a bit discharged. I'm gonna charge em at work tomorrow. But I figured if I could determine between starter relay/solenoid and starter i could grab one on my way home.

 

x3 on a worn out battery.