New to the forum, and new to Fords in general, but I'm stumped as to why it won't start.

Picked up a 1966 F-250 with the 352 V8 a few months back and have been fixing it up and driving it around and having a blast. It was running absolutely great...until...

I was out picking up some furniture when I started the truck to back out of my parking spot. Started fine like normal, but then as I shifted into R and started to back out, the engine died. I hadn't pulled the manual choke, so this wasn't too surprising. Pulled the choke, shifted to N and tried to start. Nothing but a loud and singular CLICK! Shifted to P and tried again. Just a click. hmmmm

Grabbed some jumper cabled and jumped battery to the starter (even though my starter solenoid is only 3 weeks old) and nothing.

Replaced the starter and the same issue. Just a click. Battery is new and good. Starter solenoid is new. Oil is good and full.

Could this engine have seized? Read a couple of other threads on this forum to find some answers. I'm in the process of pulling the belts and putting a breaker bar on the main pulley to see if I can turn it over.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

Seems unlikely to be seized. It was running fine, oil level good, right? Check you engine ground for good clean connection. You don't need to remove belts or anything to see if engine will turn. Just put a 13/16 socket, place engine in neutral and see if it turns.

 

Check your engine ground or use the jumper cables to jump to the starter body from the battery negative .

 

Update...
Breaker bar on the crank didn't budge. Pulled all the belts just to see, still couldn't turn it over. All other pulleys rotated just fine.

I will jump the new starter motor from the battery tomorrow. I did that initially in the parking lot when it broke down and got nothing, which led me to believe the starter motor was bad.

Is there any other reason why I wouldn't be able to turn the engine over manually with a breaker bar on the crank?

thanks for the help.

 

Oh sorry to hear all of things I can think of are neither easy to fix or cheap. It's an auto I assume ?

 

Yeah automatic transmission.

 

Silly question...you had it in neutral when you tried to hand crank?

 

Sounds like it is seized up.

 

yeah, in neutral with parking brake on when turning the crank.

 

Try pulling the spark plugs and then see if the motor turns. It is a long shot but I have seen motors hydraulic due to too much gas going through the carb and the motor cannot compress the liquid

 

It is possible you could have a hydrostatic lock, but generally the engine will turn ok in the opposite direction of rotation if that happens. I would pull the oil filter and cut it open and look in the paper pleats for metal. It would be very unusual for an engine to lock up without having made a lot of metal before it locked. There is a remote possibility that the torque converter failed internally and locked up everything. I haven't ever seen one do that but it could happen. I had a TCI converter that was shipped out with a locked up one way clutch in the stator. The engine would start, but as soon as you put it in gear it didn't just bog down the engine it stopped it in it's tracks.

 

if you are saying the engine will not turn over with a breaker bar? I would disconnect
the battery cables and remove the starter. I have seen it before in the day that the
auto parts people would sell the wrong starter and not check the nose length. Then
the nose would come off and break and wedge itself between the flexplate and engine
block. If you remove the starter and it comes out all together in one piece
I would then try to bar the engine over. If it doesn't move then it might be a deeper
engine concern.
Sonny

 

Thanks all for the great advice. Pulled the plugs and tried to turn the engine over with a breaker bar on the crank, nothing. No movement. I can actually see that I've tightened the bolt on the crank pully a little bit.

I will try pulling off the starter tomorrow and see if I get anything that way. The starter is a pain in the butt and I have to pull the exhaust to get the thing out.

I'll also pull the oil filter and see if there is any metal in there. I agree that it would be so strange to just end up with a seized engine without any violence or shaking or such. Just stopped while backing out.

It was running so good too.

 

Pull the valve cover and see if you dropped a valve.

If not....

Make sure the bendix for the starter is not sticking or there is obvious parts or pieces of an old bendix or something jamming the flexplate.

Next I might try dropping the drive shaft and see if I could turn the engine....gently.

Next I would pull the engine and transmission as a unit and start disassembly.

I would not use breaker bars....hook the starter back up.......all that will do is damage it more. Since this was sudden it may be something easily repaired. After forcing it with breaker bars.....not so much.

It is possible the transmission is locked up. Separating it will be a chore. It may can be pulled,off the converter but that's a job.

 

Can you shift the transmission. Maybe if the transmission is looked up, you can try shifting it while the truck is rolled back and fourth.....maybe this will pop,it loose if the trans is locked.