Try bypassing the starter switch to see if it cranks. Take a jumper wire and connect it to your battery positive. Touch the other end to the "S" terminal of the starter solenoid with the truck in park (auto) or neutral (manual). The engine should crank over.

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Ok, I'll try that, thanks for the help.

Also, for what it's worth, the headlights, interior lights, etc. are not working with the new battery installed, not getting anything electrical to work with the new battery installed.

 

Did this, and the engine is cranking over. Does this narrow down the problem?

 

1.Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums
2.Way at the bottom of the list (Regional Chapters)
3.Ohio Chapter

Here is a direct link:

Ohio Chapter - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

Post a thread or a link to this one and you should have more help, not that there is any thing wrong with outa state help, cause help is help when your truck is broke.

Some people take care of there own a little different state wise, by offering a helping hand or a different approach to a problem. And some people just need to get and hand and eye on it to fix it.

I have a few fellow FTE'ers come to the shop and help fix a few thing on a a couple of rigs, help install a lift kit, elec issues, swap motors.

Also getting to know your FTE state folks is a great way to get parts, find the best JY and have a G2G (Get 2 gether) BBQ ect.....

 

If you did that and it cranked over it means that the starter and the battery would be good and you have some type of electrical problem, bad solenoid, bad fuseable link. Seems to me you are not getting battery power in the truck to work the lights, or starter switch. Are you getting voltage at the fuses in the truck under the steering wheel ?

77&79 F250 is right, try to employ some help from your state guys, there may be one close that can help you sort thru it.

 

Good! So your connections from battery neg to ground and battery pos to solenoid thru to the starter are correct & solid.

Time to move inside the cab. Find a good ground and start checking to see where you have power, if any, at the fuse box under the dash on the firewall.

Do I read right that you replaced the fusible link and still don't have power? That supplies all the power to the fuse box, lights, ign switch, ect.

I have never had to replace one so I can't help with a "how to" but that needs to be traced to find out where the power stops.

Here is a link to the wiring diagrams. The 1979 will work for you as it is almost the same as the '78. http://www.fordification.net/tech/wiring.htm (hope it is back up by now)

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Thank-you for the information!

 

Thank-you for the help. Will have to check the voltage at the fuses.


It sounds like the battery is at least part of the problem because I tried the jumper wire last night with the old battery, and the engine would not crank, the solenoid would just click. But, when I tried the jumper wire with the new battery, the engine would crank.

The first thing I did when attempting to get the truck to work was that I took the old battery to one store first, and they tested it and charged it and told me it was fine after being charged. The voltage on the battery after being charged was reading the same as when I first gave them the battery, 12.23, I thought that was strange, and I don't think they charged the battery. I put the battery back in the truck, and it still wouldn't start, so I thought maybe they didn't charge it correctly, so I took it to another store, and they tested it, and the test said the battery was good but needed to be recharged, the test said the battery was low on charge. The test said the battery had 12.23 volts and 788 measured cold cranking amps but was rated at 850 cold cranking amps. They charged it and told me the battery was fine after being charged. The battery voltage was 12.38 after they charged it.

I will check the fuses with the wiring diagrams.

Yes, I replaced the fusible link with a fusible link I got from a parts store. Will try to check that.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Have you checked the cab ground yet?

1. Visually check the ground running from the front of thw cab under the cowl to the back of the engine.
2. Set your multimeter to resistance (ohms) and measure from the negative battery post to a spot of bare metal on the cab. Don't be afraid to scratch off
a tiny amount of paint to get a good connection.
3. Take a decent size wire (12 guage or so) and attach it to bare metal on the cab and to the negative battery post. Be very careful you dont touch this wire to the positive terminal. Check to see if the lights turn on.

 

Looking at the alternator wiring harness picture, I noticed that there is a yellow wire that runs off a rubber insulator tab along with the fusible link. That yellow wire is not connecting into anything, in the picture it is just resting on top of the voltage regulator connector. Could that be the problem? That yellow wire could have gotten disconnected somehow. I noticed that there is a yellow wire connector near the battery and solenoid that is not a connected to anything. Didn't want to plug that wire into the connector as not sure if that would damage anything.

I looked at those wiring diagrams, and I am having a hard time figuring out if that yellow wire is supposed to be connecting to anything.

 

Looks to me as your starter and your battery is not properly grounded, if you havent, go to orielly's and get cables, if you have, then find somewhere else to run your ground cables to, it does not have to go to the "designated" bolt, it can be clamoed, or bolted elsewhere. try buying a clamp for the time being and clamping it to BARE metal. At this hair pulling point, its just trial and error.

 

Making sure you have a ground strap from the block/intake to the firewall is a good check as Rossta86 suggested.

We know you have good ground to the engine block. Is there any power to the fuse block?

I think the yellow wire pigtail at the regulator goes to a noise suppression condenser. Is it a factory looking connector?

I upgraded to a 3g setup so I can't just look at my setup to help....

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OK I'm very new to all of this as well. I was going to post a new topic but this is very similar to the problem I'm experiencing. I apologize to the OP, I'm not trying to take over your thread, just trying to get some help. Anyway, my dad handed down a 1976 Ford truck a little while back, that had been sitting for a few years. After a little research I've concluded that it is a '76 Ford F100 Ranger (stepside). I know next to nothing about it other than that. Don't know the engine size. Don't even know what type of oil it is supposed to take. I'm trying to get the thing running again, and after checking the fluids, which all look fine (surprised since it wa sitting so long), I decided to start with a new battery. I'll change all the fluids later, not to mention get new tires, since all the tires are flat, but for now I just want to get the thing to start up.

So there was no battery in it and I went and got a brand new battery, hooked it up and thats when things went wrong. Well, some idiot had marked the cables backwards (put a negative tag on positive cable and vice versa) so when I hooked up the battery in the wrong order, what would be the positive cable going to the starter silenoid began to heat up. The end of the cable at the starter silenoid started smoking and as I quickly tried to unhook it there was a loud pop from somewhere either on or near the starter silenoid. I'm sure this was the rookiest of rookie mistakes even if the cables were mistagged, and I really feel like an idiot.

At this point I had thought well maybe it was just bad cables and went and bought new cables and swapped out the old ones with the new ones. Then as I was doing that I realized what had happened. After getting the new cables on I hooked up the battery again (the correct way) but got absolutely no electrical power to anything. Headlights wont turn on, no radio, nothing. So my question is do you think that I may have burnt out the starter silenoid, due to the loud "pop" noise I heard, and I just need to swap that out? Or could it have been something much worse? I also noticed while swapping out the battery cables that there were two negative (ground) cables. Both had battery terminals on the ends, but one was grounded way down at the bottom of the engine block, and the other was grounded near the top of the engine right in front of the radiator. Not sure why this is. I'm going to get a new battery today also, since the one I got has a 3 yr warranty. I figured that wouldn't hurt, but any other advice is much appreciated.

 

No problem, good luck getting your truck fixed. Wish I could help you, I'm sure one of the other posters will be able to help you. I'm still working on sorting through the suggestions(fuses, ground strap, etc.)for my truck that the other posters gave me.

 

I didn't look at the truck for the past 3 weeks.


Don't know how to do #1.

I did #2 above and used the multimeter to measure from the negative battery post to a bolt used to hold the side mirror onto the outside of the cab. The multimeter is showing continuity.

I also did #3 above, and the headlights do not come on.