I am having an issue where when I turn the key to start the truck I loose all power and nothing works but If I wait 20 minutes and come back to the truck it will start right up. Ive just replaced the starter on my truck and Ive realized that the engine ground wire(circled in red) has been cut at some point buy the previous owner. Where is this wire suppose to go? is it suppose to connect to the negative battery terminal? The negative battery terminal is connected directly to the starter bolt. I think this will fix the power loss problem if the truck is grounded properly. Ive searched but came up with nothing to help me with the engine ground problem. Another wire(labeled green) is hanging freely around where the starter goes. The only way the wire wants to go is up by the starters hot terminal which is a square end and this wire has two tabs that make it fit nicely onto of the starters hot terminal. Is this suppose to attach to the starter? It wasn't connected when I took the old starter off. Any insight will be greatly appriciated=) Truck is a 1988 f150 with a 302, 5 speed, and 4x4.

 

I would agree with what Scndsin states, your old POS Batt cable. and not related to your starting issue.

You should check to see if you have a separate ground going from the Engine to the Body

Can you photograph the other end of those wires near the starter?


The cable in your hand looks like the O2 sensor wires.

 

Your starting issue could be you Key Switch, Starter Solenoid, or the wiring from the key switch to the solenoid.

What happens if you came back in 5 minutes?

 

Most of this gen had the O2 sensor wire run in the same convolute/split loom that the starter cable runs through.

The heavy cable that has the funky end used to be your positive starter cable.

 

As you can see in the top drawing, the NEG Battery Cable was bolted to the Engine Block (G203), along with the POS Batt Cable hanger. <br/>




As you can see in the diagram on the left, there is a ground connection from the engine to the body. <br/>Origonally G203 is on the right side of engine to the firewall, G710. <br/>Maybe a braided strap type ground cable.

Oh, FYI - the 2 wires crimped in to your new negitive batt cable, one is a very important ground wire to your EECM, this gets left off when folks don't buy the cable with the crimp pigtail. (See diagram)

 

Ill look for the ground from the engine to the body tomorrow, I have this one photo I took today of the starter but not all three cables are shown. Ill post better ones tomorrow.The three wires by the starter are all black. If its an old battery cable what should I do with it? should I remove it?

 

Yeah, no reason to have that old cable bouncing around...

 

Does mine appear to look correct?

 

It looks ok from my view.....


What’s going on with the lower alternator bolt ?
Also, you have a cap missing off your fuel vapor charcoal canister……

 

Scndsin and vjsimone thanks for all the help so far. I took a look again and the wire is in the same loom as the O2 sensor. I also peeled the loom back by the connector, I don't know why I didn't just do that in the first place. I should probably get new connectors on the O2 Sensor, looks like one of the posts is broken off.

I looked by the right side of engine to the firewall and didn't see a braided ground cable. There is just this wire like on page 19 (G203). Where should this cut wire attach to if I were to fix it? I've always been told you can never have enough grounds but what do I know.

What book did you get those diagrams out of? My Haynes manual is kind of vague sometimes and diagrams help me more than reading.
Ill add the missing cap off the fuel vapor charcoal canister to the list... It seems to get longer every time I try to cross something off I did google search the canisters but I don't see any canisters with caps on them they all look like mine.

This thing has been neglected for many years but I'm learning a lot fixing everything thats wrong with it.

 

This is how I got it, what is wrong?

 

This is what your ground cable should look like & you can see what's missing.

The small one with the eye goes to the fender & is pretty important.

 

The book is the 1988 EVTM - Electrical & Vacuum Trouble-Shooting Manual

Just take out the cut off cables.

Install something like this between your Engine and Firewall..; and you will be good to go.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/d...jeep/commander

http://www.cjponyparts.com/scott-dra...AaAtoWEALw_wcB

 

Now that I see the alternator bolt close up it looks fine.....

 

See the caps ?