Well, it has been a tough week at my house! Yesterday my wife called me on her way to work to tell me her car was running warm and the heater would not work. It had been losing a little antifreeze for a while, so that morning before she left I checked and filled the radiator. She drives 26 miles each way to work. Later that afternoon I went to get her car home, and found the radiator was 1 gallon low so it had lost a gallon in 26 miles. I fiilled it back up with water and headed home. As soon as it warmed up it was kicking white thick steam from the exhaust, completely fogging out the road behind me. After about 5 miles it quit blowing the smoke or steam or whatever it was, and started running warm. It also had a hard engine miss. No visible water leak anywhere around the engine, very little antifreeze smell. By the time I got home the radiator was empty again. Pretty sure she blew a head gasket. A 1991 Ford 3.8 engine.
Then today she drove our 2005 F350 to work. This afternoon she called to tell me it wouldn't start. Radio, fan, lights all worked until she turned the key then everything went off and it just clicked. As soon as she let the key back to run radio and everything came back on. I headed up to try to get that pickup home figuring either a battery connection, a low battery or a bad starter. She called when I was about half way there to tell me she was on the road. A co-worker slid under the pickup and tapped the starter with a hammer while she turned the key. After a while tapping the starter it spun and started right up. Tonight I started it 4 times without any issues, turns right over. He told her that the starter was loose, but he thought the starter was bad because he had to hit the solenoid pretty hard to get it to spin. So, either the starter was not grounded and his tapping it moved it enough to make contact or the starter is going bad. I didn't crawl under it yet to see what he meant by loose, didn't feel like laying in the mud and snow today. I am not sure why the starter would be loose either. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow night. She will drive my F150 tomorrow so we will see what happens to that one. I told her she already broke all of her cars, be careful with my pickup!
Anyone have any thoughts on the starter issue? It has the 6.0 diesel with about 225000 miles.

 

Wow, you guys ARE having some bad luck!

Fortunately the problem on your F350 should be relatively simple to fix, you need a new starter. It's common for the starter solenoid to stick as they get old and fail to engage the starter. If her coworker was able to get it to start after whacking the solenoid, that's going to be your problem. New starter and you should be good to go. Your wife's car, not so much.

 

When you take the starter out it couldn't hurt to have it bench tested to see if its actually the problem. If its original chances are its ready to be replaced. By whacking the starter with a hammer it dislodges the brushes that are hung up in the brush rig due to carbon and grease build up. They lose contact with the commutator thus no start...

Consider replacing the remote solenoid if its not integral to the starter which I don't think it is. I prefer to have starters rebuilt by a competent starter/alternator rebuild house rather than taking chances with something built offshore(chineasium junk). Buy the best one money can buy if possible.

Heres another tip. Remove ALL positive and negative secondary (large) battery cables and clean all connections from the battery terminals down to and including the starter and its terminals. Test the cables with an Ohm meter and replace if they fail the Ohm test (read high) and/or fail a visual inspection. Do the smaller ground leads coming off the larger cables which are bolted to the core support and inner fenders as well as the wires connected to the remote solenoid(if equipped).

Once its all clean follow up with battery terminal protectant spray. This will keep the newly cleaned connections clean for a good while verses leaving the clean metal bare. Dont over apply the protectant on the battery posts. It can wick between the terminal and post causing high resistance and no starts. I like the red/green felt azz holes you install between the posts and terms.

Have both batteries(if equipped) load tested.

By insuring the whole systems at peak electrical performance with little resistance it wont put undue load on the new starter
solenoid...reducing its life.

Oh be sure to clean the starter mount area on the engine block as well.

 

Good advice on checking cables and all connections!
There used to be a rebuilder close to me that rebuilt starters and alternators for Napa and other parts suppliers but they went out of business. They were very good at what they did.
Back when I was a mechanic I used to be able to buy rebuild kits and rebuild starters and alternators myself. It is not too hard to do as long as all of the windings are still good. If it was just brushes and bushings it wasn't too bad. Last summer I went in to the local parts store and asked for an alternator rebuild kit. They told me that they don't make rebuild kits! I said I used to rebuild them all of the time. The parts guy said no you don't rebuild starters or alternators, you buy new. I asked so what do you have for alternators, he said he could sell me a new one or a rebuilt one. I asked how there can be rebuilt alternators if they can't be rebuilt. He didn't have an answer.
I slid under the pickup tonight and took a quick look at the starter. It does have the solenoid on the starter. I debated just replacing the solenoid, but will probably just get a whole new starter with solenoid. If it were my old pickup I would go cheap, but my wife and kids use this pickup. I can't have them stranded somewhere. I am glad you brought up checking wires and connections!
The pickup has been starting fine since then, but that is the way starters go. It might work fine for a day, a month or another year, but it will most certainly go completely sooner or later.
The thunderbird won't be too bad to fix, it will just be time consuming. Lucky I do not see any sign of water in the oil, and it has not lost any oil so hopefully we caught it quick enough it will be a fairly straightforward repair.
Next issue will be fixing her expedition! The battery drain I have posted in another thread on here, and an engine miss. It is not missing long enough to throw any codes, but gets an intermittent hard miss when warmed up. I am guessing a bad coil, but can't isolate which coil until it gets worse.... unless I buy a new coil and just keep moving it from one cylinder to another.

 

Yeah, my dad, a mechanic for about 35 years, had [he died, so it's mine now] a box for testing the wiring on the rotor, and I think also the stator of starters and alternators for rebuilding them, but now you have to know the right guy at the right parts store to get all the right bits for doing it.

Same with master cylinders. You can buy rebuilt master cylinders anywhere, but I phoned the dealer as well as a bunch of local brake-part shops/distributors, nobodies got any kind of rebuild kit or internal seals for my MC. Hell, the service manual details which specific seals to replace to do it. My MC worked fine, it just had a thick layer of sediment from something all over the bottom of the reservoir and in the MC, but I didn't want to risk it not working right by re-using the existing seals...

Soon it will be the entire motor...

 

Well, lucky day for me I hope!
Today went to a relatives house for the day. When we got ready to head home, I went out to start the pickup and let it warm up. It was 9 degrees outside, so I had my fingers crossed that it would start without plugging it in. It had only sat for 3 or 4 hours after a 2 hour drive, so I was hoping. Anyway, turned the key and let the glow plugs warm up then turned the key to the start position. All I got was a very light quiet click. I released the key and turned it to start again, same quiet click. Not a clickclickclickclick. Not a loud click or thunk, just a quiet click. Wife said that was the same thing it did for her. Lights were on bright, radio heater fan and everything worked fine. When I turned it to start things shut off like they should and came right back on bright and loud as soon as I released the key. So, I popped the hood and checked the first thing that came to my mind. Yep, a loose battery connection. My wife had grabbed the clamps on the battery posts and twisted there to make sure they were tight, but it not loose on the post, but she must not have twisted hard enough. Also, I noticed whoever put those batteries in used WAY too much of the anti corrosion coating stuff. I suspect it is between the clamp and the post the way it looked. Anyway, I got my tool box out and gave the battery connection a good half a turn. It started right away after that. So, I think it was just a loose connection. I think if it were the starter I would either hear a louder click or no sound at all. One stop on the way home, shut it off and restarted it fine. Fingers crossed the problem is solved!
As a side note, a couple of years ago I wanted to rebuilt the master cylinder on my 84 F250. That was another that the parts man said you don't rebuild. He sold me a rebuilt master cylinder, but said I can't buy parts to rebuild it myself. He claimed they have never sold kits for cylinders. He has been a parts man for 20 years or more, so he should know! I guess it is a throw away world for sure these days.

 

Glad to hear you got it figured out! Battery connections are a really common cause, it threw us off that it started after tapping the starter. Perhaps your solenoid isn't 100%?

 

That still has me a little cautious about the starter. I am hoping it was just a coincidence. It sounds like he laid under it and tapped on the starter for a minute or two while she kept clicking the key, so maybe it just happen to make connection one of the times. Since then it has started fine, until yesterday then as soon as I tightened the bolt it fired right up.
If the starter is still bad I guarantee it will go out tomorrow. I will be out of town, so when my wife gets off work I won't be able to go rescue her.

 

Don't forget to check the connections at the starter also. They can loose connection there also to corrosion.

 

All connections look good clean and tight. Both battery terminals, grounds, starter connection all look good. Hopefully it was just that one loose bolt connection that was causing the trouble. So far it is working just fine.