I’ve searched the forum and have not run into any postsdealing with my current situation. Here goes:
I have a new to me 83 F-150, 4x4, manual trans with astraight 6. I’d only put around 200 miles on it when the alternator went out. Idecided to replace the alternator, battery, starter, starter solenoid, voltageregulator and ignition box with the intent to not have to worry about startingissues for a while. That’s great in theory, but I couldn’t get it to crank. I cleanedall my grounds and added an additional ground from the negative side of thebattery to the body. The truck started and ran fine for 10 minutes in thedriveway and I shut it off, waited a few minutes and tried to start it againand got nothing. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. No click when I turned thekey, no dome light, no dash lights, wipers, etc. It’s like the battery isn’t evenin the truck. I stuck a volt meter on the battery and it reads 10v but I hadthe battery tested at two places and they tell me it is fully charged and, “shouldstart anything,” so maybe I’m not testing the battery correctly.
Has anyone encountered this before? If so, please let meknow what you did to rid yourself of these electrical gremlins. I’m generallypretty handy but electricity is magic to me and I don’t know where to go fromhere. Thanks!

 

Are your battery cables tight?


You can always use jumper cables on the battery and touch 12V to the starter motor to make sure your starter motor works. If it does crank then you know there's an open or short between your battery and the starter motor.

 

10v on the battery means the battery is bad.

 

Yep 10v is not good when it should have 12.5-12.8


I have found on my older cars/trucks if new to me besides going thru the brake system is to replace ALL batt cables as they are cheap enough.


You can not look at them to see if they are bad or not.
Over the years they corrode on the inside and this raises the resistance and leads to a no start.
my .02
Dave ----

 

10 volts at the battery posts means a shorted or reversed cell.

 

to see the post
Dave ----

 

In the immortal words of Douglass Adams:


"Don't Panic"


You've got a hard fault, so that makes troubleshooting easier, as opposed to an intermittent fault.


I'm baffled by the 10V reading on the battery. You said the battery was tested at two shops and they both said it was fully charged, so something doesn't jibe. Let's ignore that for suspect value for now and break it down to a simple scenario of nothing electrical is working.


First thing, disconnect the battery and put it overnight on an automatic charger. Don't troubleshoot with a battery in unknown condition as that can skew the results. If you don't have an automatic charger, it's time to beg, borrow, or steal one.


After the battery is fully charged, hook up some kind of test load to it. Myself, I use a spare headlight bulb and some test leads for that. I'm sure you will see the bulb light up, but let's make sure. The battery may not have enough oomph to start the engine, but it should light up a bulb.


After knowing the battery has some life in it, reconnect it and start troubleshooting a simple circuit like the dome lamp or headlights. Don't worry about the starter circuit for now. The starter draws a huge amount of current and has its own challenges. Since everything is dead, concentrate on a simple circuit instead. Get that working and I bet the rest will take care of itself.


Wiring diagrams here for 1980 and 1986. I think 1986 is closer to your 1983, but am not positive:


EVTM - ???Gary's Garagemahal




My hunch is a fusible link (or two) has blown and has taken out much of the electrical system. The fusible links are attached at the starter relay on the passenger side fender, on the side closest to the battery. Look those over and see if any appear heat damaged.


There's more in-depth stuff we can do, but start with the simple checks first and report back.

 

You can try to charge the battery, but afterward check the voltage sitting there, if it's 10v, it's no good. If it happens to be near 12v hook a load to it like the previous poster described at the same time measuring the voltage. If it's less than 12v, it's no good. Don't even go to the trouble to put it back in the truck.

I know batteries are expensive now, so you can try and make double sure it's bad.

 

Dave,


I forgot to mention in my previous post: I'm wondering if the battery has somehow been run down. Maybe it showed a good charge when tested at the store, but something is drawing it down when installed. The battery may be fine, I'm not sure. How much time elapsed after being reinstalled and then the mystery 10V was recorded?


Definitely a strange one.

 

That is possible. I agree with trying to charge it and see what happens. Give it one last chance.

 

Thanks for the replies! I've got the battery on charge now and will try to start the truck in the morning but don't have high hopes that'll work because I tried with the battery from my daughters car and came up with nothing. The battery is new but I have to believe it's a bad one. Almost no time elapsed between the battery tests at the shops and when I put it back in the truck. I'll replace both battery cables, you're right, they look fine but there could be issues under the insulation. I replaced the fusable link at the starter solenoid but only saw one connected there. Thanks again for the info and the diagrams- I'll start poking around in the morning and see what I come up with.

 

One more thing, should my starter be grounded? When I took it off there were only two wires attached, the negative battery cable and the wire from the starter solenoid. The negative cable attaches to the bolt at the bottom of the starter and the other to the screw into the tang at the front of the starter and is viable looking through the engine bay. I can't remember if my 84 had an additional wire or not. Dang, I shoulda never sold that truck!

 

I believe the sixes did have the ground going directly to the starter, the v8's ground went to the engine block.

 

And there's the difference! My 84 was a 302. Thanks.

 

That ground on the six does bolt onto 1 of the starter bolts but it also has a lug in the middle of the cable and that has a bolt that goes on to the frame by the right hand motor frame mount. I don't think you can buy them like that so I think batt to frame then cable from frame to bolt holding starter on.
I don't have a picture but can get one from my truck if you need to see one.



There should also be a small (12 ga?) ground wire on the left side of the motor to the fire wall.
And the last one I know of on the right side of hood to fire wall.
Dave ----