Hello, This is my first post, so I hope I am doing this correctly! I recently bought a 1965 F100. The truck would not start and I thought it was the starter (I am not a mechanic!). I took the starter to the store and they bench tested it. The starter was okay. I re-installed the starter, hooked up the battery and it started right up. A few weeks later after driving quite a bit, the truck wouldn't start again. Did not crank at all, no noises. I unhooked the battery and then re-connected it. Again, the truck started right up. Any thoughts?
Thanks!

 

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try

 

 

You can buy good cable on Amazon or at any quality hardware store. I use pure copper welding cable. I use 4 gauge and 0 gauge myself. 4 gauge is easy to work with.

 

I see a lesson here, you say your no mechanic, what we learn as we become mechanics over time....is recognizing any or the "clues" we find while trouble shooting a problem. You have as major of a clue as you can get!! You unhooked/hooked the battery back up and the truck worked? Two separate times? Clean/service the battery cables or buy new ones, also follow the cables to their opposite end, and clean the connections there also. Your closer to being a mechanic!

 

 

Make sure that your starter solenoid is grounded very well to the inner fender. I remounted mine by drilling and tapping both holes and also added nuts to the bolts so the screws do not come loose. Make sure your negative cable is connected from the battery to the motor and the connection has a clean landing area. No paint or rust. Make sure there is a ground strap from the motor to the frame and clean connections on both ends where you are connecting the ends of the cables. Make sure the cables are least #2 coming from the battery. Connections are everything on these old trucks.

 

And do yourself a favor any time you have a new-to-you old vehicle that runs glass fuses. Pull them all out and put them all back in!
Just this action alone serves to clean the contact points and, perhaps, let more current flow through them. Most of the old fuse panels had this issue over time. Some more than others, usually having to do with the moisture in the air. But even here, in what's a glorified desert, it still happens.

The "official" recommendation before doing this is to disconnect the battery (you can just disconnect the negative/ground cable and this disables all the electrical functions in the vehicle) but with most fuse setups, you can remove and re-install the fuses without causing undue stress to the system. Or yourself when sparks fly!

Good luck.

Paul