I've looked through the forums and tried what I saw. I have a 2002 F250 7.3L engine. I haven't had any starting issues until today. This morning at home, it started right up, as strongly as ever. So I don't suspect the batteries. I drove it a few miles to school, parked and shut it down. The car in front of me moved so I figured I'd pull forward so I could pull straight out. So, not even a minute after I shut it down, I tried to re-start it and it wouldn't turn over. Everything lit up as normal. Glow plug light lit up and extinguished. All the normal relay clicks and lights on the dash seemed to happen. But when I go to start, nothing happened. From other forums, I tried swapping the blower relay for the start relay (on this truck, its located in the fuse panel below the steering wheel). Nothing changed. I pulled the starter off hoping it would just be that. I took it to 4 auto parts stores before I found one with a working tester. It seemed to test fine, unfortunately. There exists the remote possibility that it unstuck itself in removing the starter and carrying it around to 4 stores. I won't know until tomorrow when I get back to school and throw the old starter back on it. But now I'm wondering if anybody has some likely problem areas to check out to help narrow my troubleshooting. Again, between its normal strong start, and no start 10 minutes later, nothing abnormal happened. No big bumps. No running over a big tree. No big puddles. Just a normal, short drive.

 

Did you try starting it in neutral (if it's an automatic)?

 

Agreed, if an auto, try starting in neutral first, or holding the gear shift further up in park. If it's a stick, check the CPP sensor.

My starter went out recently. It acted up on cold mornings or afternoons. Turn the key and there was nothing.

Discovered if I held the key to start for 5 or 6 seconds, after 3 or 4 tries the truck would start up. Starter sounded fine and spun over fast enough to start the truck pretty quick.

New starter spins it a whole heck of a lot faster and never has any hesitation once I bump the key.

 

Good question. yes, I tried moving the gear shift (automatic) back and forth through all the gears and back up into park to see if that did anything. Also tried starting in neutral. Nothing.

 

The two most obvious culprits are the ignition switch and the neutral safety switch.

 

Are the battery terminals/posts clean and tight? Cables in good shape? I've seen sporadic starting symptoms like yours if those items aren't up to snuff.

 

When you had it tested, how did it react?
Mine did the same thing last month and when i had it being tested, the gear would extend and turn but not that fast. Slow motion type thing. A good starter will have the torque to try and jump on you when you apply power. So it may look like it is working on the bench but unless it is applying enough torque, it wont spin the motor.
What about the relay on the passenger fender well? have you tried to jump that to see if it would start? Or do the 02's have it there?

 

The '02s don't have the fender mounted relay, but there is a round, single pole connector with a yellow wire that can be disconnected and touched to the positive battery post to engage the starter.

 

Any chance the truck has an aftermarket alarm?

 

Yeah I wasn't sure when it changed but you are on the same thought as me.