Jumpstarting 2 battery truck

[Neil64]

Hello All,

How do I jumpstart my 2 battery F250 7.3? Do I connect the jumpercables to the passenger side or driver's side battery? It is cold here (23F) and I can not get the truck to start and have drained my batteries.

Thanks..

Neil

[dagren99]

Connect to the Passenger Side Battery.

23F man that's a heat wave compared to us - we woke up to 3deg this AM.

DG

[wwb]

As dagren99 said, connect the jumper cables to the one on the passenger side.... it's the closest to the starter.

If you ran the batteries down by cranking, you ought to charge them (at least part way) before attempting to jump the truck. The draw is too much to expect from the live vehicle, unless it's got dual batteries as well. Also, the draw will likely be too much for the jumper cables... especially where they contact the posts.

A side note.... even without plugging in a block heater, 23F should be no sweat starting. My hunting camp in northern Minnesota has no electricity, and my truck has started fine in temps as low as 5F without being plugged in.... it rattles a lot when it starts, but it starts quickly. Could you have multiple bad glow plugs?

[dagren99]

Agree starting @ 23deg shouldn't be much of a problem unless the batteries are weak to begin with.

If jumping doesn't work you'll have to start going down the path of looking into: GPR, Fuel, Glow Plugs, etc, etc.

When was the last time you filled up - Tank over 1/2 full? Low tank + cold weather & marginal fuel = trouble.

Welcome to the cold weather ops blues club w/ the 7.3L

Diesel 911 Rescue - I generally keep a bottle of this around along w/ a spare fuel filter element just in case.

DG

[Neil64]

I plugged in the block heater for about 45 mins. I went out and she started right up. I guess I'll have to troubleshoot the GPR and glow plugs. I had more than 1/2 a tank of fuel with Diesel Kleen mixed in.

Thanks everyone. At least I now know how to jumpstart if need be.

Neil

[boggerted]

I can tell you that my buddy once gave a guy a jumpstart, my friends truck is a 03 PSD and the other guy had a 90 7.3idi. We conected both b atteries with 2 sets of jumper cables, and it eventually started it, but the next day, my friends batteries were toast!!!

[oltrucker]

just jumpit to either battery and wait. dont be in a hurry. a nsmall car can take half an hour to get a psd batt set up to snuff. i always disconect the jumpers when its time to crank the psd so as to not put a hugh draw on the smal battery. it can hurt them.

[RunRed]

I run 3 1000CA batteries in mine. Back when my glow plugs were junk it took a longggg time for it to start. Now that I got the plugs working, and got new batteries (since I was charging the other ones all night just to have the morning start kill all 3 of them) it starts right up, even at 5F not plugged in, starts and dies a couple times but never sits there cranking for more than 5 seconds at most anymore, used to crank for 30 seconds so I never take GP's for granted anymore..even at 60F+ I went to orschlyn's the other day and noticed they had batteries the same size as mine that were 1200CA, 3 of them and a new gear reduction starter should do some good

[magusjinx]

What would be the advantages of a gear reduction starter?

[RunRed]

I have never personally dealt with one but from what most guys say, it spins the engine a lot faster than the oem starter. Someone else might chime in with more details..

[Snowbunny]

They are smaller, have a magnetic switch, a larger shaft and about twice as much torque so your engine starts faster with less cranking. I switched over to one last summer, and wish I had done it sooner!! It sounds different too, took me a long time to get used to it.