My names jared. Im new to the forum and looking at buying a 1987 f250 with a carbed 460. Heating,a/c and alternator have all beeen removed. It was used as a mud truck and has supposedly been sitting for 2 years. The owner said im welcome to try to start it before i buy it. I went there today and threw a battery in it that was used but reading good. It cranked over very slowly a few times then seemed like the battery was dead. I tried a few more batteries but it wouldnt even crank over. It made a single click like the starter tried to spin but didnt. Its not the constant clicking that a solenoid makes when a battery is low. The click definatly sounded like it was the starter trying to spin but couldnt but im not sure if thats the case. I tried jumping the solenoid and tapping the starter neither worked. Im gonna go back saturday to try again. This time im gonna bring a good battery but if that doesnt work what else should i try? id really like to get this started to buy it. I cleaned battery terminals and also solenoid posts. Please let me knkw what else i should try or test when i go back. With the alternator mjssing i wasnt sure if there something there that woupd keep it from atleast cranking over. Thanks in advance for any info or suggestions you can give me. Liking all the info on this site so far.

 

Pull the spark plugs and see if the starter can crank the engine.
Could be antifreeze is in one or more of the cylinders.

 

Do i need to pull all the sparkplugs or just a few? So youre thinking the problem might be in the motor making it too hard for the starter to turn over instead of the starter jhst nkt spinning either because of electrical or being bad?

 

I'd pull all of the plugs. Could be coolant in a cylinder (or multiple).

It could also just be that the starter is bad.

Check all of the connections. On the solenoid (fender mount), on the starter, and make sure they're connected to the battery nice and tight. Clean up and/or tighten down the connections if needed. be careful about tightening on the solenoid posts because they're prone to breaking (plastic) when they get old. Also check the engine ground since that's how the starter is grounded. Sometimes when something has been sitting, the insides of the wires can be corroded up a bit too, so you could also strip back a little of the wire coating to see if they look good.

Could also be that the solenoid is a little corroded inside. You could jump power across it if you want to basically eliminate any possibility of the solenoid being the issue.

If you look over all of that stuff and it still won't crank over easy, it's either the starter or an internal mechanical issue.

 

Also pull the oil dipstick and verify the oil level.

Did the seller say the truck ran before it was parked?

 

Okay ill pull all the plugs then. He said it ran but has been sitting for 2 years. Ill clean all the connections also. Is there anyway to test the starter?

 

If you take it off of the truck, a lot of parts stores will test them for free.

 

Take a BFH (big *****ing hammer) and a buddy with you. You hammer the hell out of the starter with the BFH and have your buddy turn to crank mode. That sometimes frees up stuck starters lol

 

Yup, that method works!