I started up my truck this morning and was going to drive it to run an errand. After it warmed up and I got it going down the road it felt like it was having a serious loss of power, in the vein of a mis-fire or something. Any time I gave it gas it kind of puffed and gasped and wouldnt go over 20mph.

Turned it around and drove it back home to investigate later. However when I got it back in the driveway, I turned the key off and pulled it out and nearly got out of the truck before I realized it was still running. Key out, still running, wut?? Put the key back in and after a few tries turning it off again it finally shut down. I did some googling, saw on here that people were suggesting replacing the solenoid starter, went to autozone, grabbed the part, swapped it out and the thing runs like a charm. No power issues or anything. Could the starter have something to do with that??

Sorry in advance for my lack of understanding. Learning day by day!

Thanks all.

 

Sounds like you welded the contacts on the starter solenoid, common problem. Good that you did not trash a starter or flywheel in the process.

Normally that happens during start up.

 

I agree that the solenoid contacts were probably welded. As far as the power problem, it may be possible that the connections inside the solenoid were intermittently open/close just prior to the contacts welding. That may have resulted in a fluctuation in voltage from the solenoid to the rest of the truck. And in my experience any kind of abnormality in the electrical stream can cause the ignition system (brain box, etc) to do all kinds of crazy stuff. That may be why you experienced power surging and rough running. I could be totally wrong. But it's just an idea.

 

The Starter Solenoid/Relay Supplies full voltage to the "I" Terminal which runs direct to the Ignition Coil + side. This would explain the wheezing, puffing, and gasping as the coil would be overheated.

Also, I really don't like the older style barrel type relays, and prefer the newer style used on '90's era Fords. Like the NAPA Echlin ST404

 

Thanks for all the feedback. Good to know there isnt something else going on!

Cheers

 

OK UPDATE:
Thought I solved this problem but now Im back where I started. Please read my first post to get up to date but long story short, truck wouldn't turn off and was running rough so I switched out the solenoid starter and all returned to normal. That was on Monday.

Wednesday rolls around, I hop in the truck to go for a drive expecting everything to be running as I left it but it wont start. Battery isnt dead, lights are turning on... I'd read on here that a bunch of people had been sold bad solenoid starters. Headed back to Autozone, got a new one threw it on, nothing. After a few attempts at starting up I now notice that all electrical has failed and I have no battery power. Try jumping it, nothing. Check battery date (this is a brand new truck to me so still getting to know her) and its 3 years old, OK makes sense, need a new one. (how convenient it'd die 3 days after purchasing the truck..)

Throw the new battery in, viola runs like a charm. Go for my evening spin as a happy camper.

Now today, Thursday, starts right up and I head off down the road. Hmmm its running a little rough, but maybe it's still warming up. Drive it around a bit more and the gasping, staggering in acceleration only gets worse. I take it back home and contemplate. I replace the fuel filter and the air filter, adjust carb (to my ear, dont have a timing gun or a vaccuum gauge) and hop for the best. Hop in the truck and the gasping is still bad, basically back to where it was before I switched out the solenoid originally.

Beyond taking it to a REAL mechanic (im trying here...) to get it diagnosed Im thinking my only option is to put on a legit American made solenoid (Autozone only has foreign made) and see if that works again. I'd read people had much better luck with American made... Any thoughts???

 

From reading your original post again, I think when you said your engine kept "running" when you shut the ignition off. The kind people on here took that as the "starter motor" was still turning your engine over after the ignition switch was placed in the "off" position. That is why you were told to replace the solenoid. I don't think that is your problem. If your engine is still running, as in burning fuel after you shut the ignition switch off, you have an electrical problem stemming from your ignition switch circuit. Obviously your ignition was still on over the week (I'm guessing), and it drained your battery. A three year old battery is not old. A battery that repeatedly gets drained will become toast early in life though. I think you need to take your 12v test light, and start at your ignition switch, and trace power. Start by finding the hot wire coming out of the switch with the test light and fiddle with the switch (off and on) and see if the light doesn't shut off sometimes. that's where I would start looking.....

 

And your poor running conditions could easily be fuel related, or dizzy issues. Heat causes strange things to distributor modules. Your vacuum advance plate inside the dizzy could be sticking, causing erratic timing. More ideas for ya

 

Thanks for the input. Just switched out to a heftier solenoid this morning and its still running like crap.

Going to start looking further down the line at the distributor and checking on vacuum leaks.

Learn a new lesson every day!

 

I had a similar issue with mine when I bought it and it remaining running after key was shut off. Previous owner did hack job on ignition wiring.. Follow What Jackburton said for starters.. If you eliminate that as an issue you can move on, bad ignition can cause you to run in circles chasing issues.. Also look at inside of Dist cap, if its not seated correctly it will show abnormal burn marks on the inside of it, also cause rotor cap to spin irregularly. That can cause poor running conditions.. Those parts are cheap, if you haven't replaced them I would do it just because... Keep us posted, and good luck..

 

Feeling a bit stumped. Opened up the distributor and tested vacuum on the vacuum advance plate, seems to be just fine. Everything looks as it should be in there, no sticking. Read a few places that people with similar symptoms would unhook their vacuum advance and everything would run smoothly. Tried that but the truck ran even worse. My vacuum advance is hooked up to the passenger side of the carb FYI.

Any other ideas are welcome before I break down and take it to someone that knows what their doing.

In the meantime, I guess I will need to go buy a test light and get down to business!

 

If your truck has a factory carb, stock ignition etc...the dizzy should be hooked into a ported vacuum (no vacuum at idle), so there won't be an effect on ignition timing. Yours appears to have vacuum at idle causing your vacuum advance to stay in the advanced position to hold engine time. You have some tuning to do.