So today I start my truck as usual, let the glow plugs be on for 60 seconds. Crank and the truck acts like it wants to start but the starter disengages and just spins. (mind you starter was new 6 months ago and maybe have put 4,000 miles on the truck since, batteries tested good at time of starter replacement too) I crank the truck again and it fires and starts. Drive to the hardware store, when I go to leave it cranks and then the starter disengages again, does this a couple times before it stays engaged long enough to start. Now the truck has been at home for a few hours I go out to start it and move it out of the way. Starter engages and disengages several times before I get it started. Move the truck and shut it off. Put the battery charger on it thinking maybe my batteries are going. Go out after a few hours and try to start, same thing engages and then disengages and spins. played with it for a good while and got it to start. Then BAM as soon as it starts it sounds like it is running on 4 cylinders and the check engine light is on. It will rev up some but sounds horrible and CEL is stays on. Shut it down and restart, same thing. I checked the codes with my insight and just have p1111 which from what I have read is a good thing.

I have no idea what to do from here, truck has always run good since I have had it, starts good in the cold. I have replaced the glow plugs and put a white rogers relay on it. It was running flawlessly until this afternoon when all of this just started out of the blue. I thought I was just going to have to change the starter again this weekend but now I am worried something else is really wrong.

Its dark now but I will check the valve cover pigtails when I have time or this weekend. Just not really sure how it just starts acting like this.

 

When you replaced the starter,was the starter a rebuilt one or a new one? I have had a rebuilt unit act this way, so I have just started to install new units.

 

yes it was a replacement to one I installed maybe two years before, it was a warranty exchange. Suppose the **** poor cranking when it does engage is causing the truck to run erratically?

 

I would treat the starter as a separate issue.
Had a NAPA starter not fully engage the ring gear and strip a few teeth. Trans had to be pulled.

Lesson learned, buy high quality starters only.
My next will be a Denso from CNC Fab.

 

I don't think the erratically running has any thing to do with the starter, probably 2 different issues. A few years ago I started to get a miss and rough idle that would come and go, and got progressively worse. Long story short, it turned out to be an injector pigtail that I replaced using butt connectors. Replaced the pigtail again soldering the connections and problem solved. Lesson learned.

 

Concur with you having 2 separate problems.

With the starter, the starter is spinning free without cranking the engine? Sounds like the starter pinion stripped a few teeth on the flywheel. I've got an E4OD, so I don't know if you have an inspection plate on your bell housing. If you do, pull the plate, and check for missing or mangled teeth on the flywheel. I recollect I was able to move the flywheel (and engine) with a long prybar. Because of compression, I recollect that there are 4 rotational orientations that the flywheel likes to stop, so these are high-wear spots where the starter pinion tries to engage. Sounds like you've got one spot bad enough that even if the starter engages on another spot, when the bad spot comes around there's not enough momentum to carry the engine over the bad spot, and the engine stops on that spot and the flywheel just spins. That's an ouch.

I had a similar problem, also I think a NAPA starter. The starter wouldn't engage on the bad spot, which was every few start attempts, but would carry through the bad spot and start once engaged. When it wouldn't engage, I was able to pry the flywheel over a few teeth and it would crank. New starter, then quickly a new ring gear or flexplate (I forget if the starter ring is a separate piece) before the new starter pinion got mangled.

Once started, you're beyond starter problems. My last crappy running like you describe was a squirrel chewing through one of the injector harnesses.

 

Well messed with the truck some, got it to throw a p0344 code which I believe is CPS intermittent signal or something to that effect. I have read that lots of cranking can throw that code.

i got the starter of and it is junk. Bench tested it and it will spin fast but won’t barely pull the gear out and if it does it slowly retracts. This would be the cause of my intermittent engagement and poor starting. I will take it and exchange for a new one on Friday.

if I am still having problems with the engine running rough I have a spare CPS in the glove box (ford one). I have no idea if the one on the truck was ever changed out or not.

 

Sounds like you are on the right track. If the bad running issue does persist, I would pull the IDM connector and ohm out the wires to see if you may have an injector wiring issue

 

Good idea! Before I pulled the starter the rough running/idling and CEL was kind of erratic. A couple times when I got it started it idled and ran fine. Then one time it was running find and then all of the sudden it was if you flipped a switch and it went to running like crap again. Hopefully I will get the starter changed out tomorrow when I am home and can go from there. I feel like all of the hit or miss cranking / short cranking cycles may have cause the rough running issue....idk. Seems odd that I never had a problem like this until the starter started acting up like this.

 

ohm out inj harness from IDM connector with this https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...load-test.html

Your starter issues has nothing to do with its poor running. Just coincidence.

 

well got to checking the IDM connector today. It is getting power. When trying to ohm the connector for each injector circuit not sure what was going on. I couldn't get a reading on any one of them with the ohm range listed on the test sheet. I did let it run for a few min. The driver side bank is working as that manifold got hot. The passenger side didn't. Assuming that whole bank is out. Question is if something is wrong with the UVCH harness will it shut the entire bank down? I'm still not getting any codes on my edge insight either.

 

Also just did another quick test after trying to ohm the UVCH at the pins. I unplugged the passenger side rear connector and started the truck. It ran much smother and would rev up better. I plugged it back in while the truck was running and the IDM instantly shuts down the entire passenger side bank and it begins to run horrible again.

 

Sounds like it is doing what it is supposed do. Time to pull the valve cover.

 

You have a short and that shuts down the bank Could be the harness or it could be under the valve cover.

 

Yeah I am wondering if something came loose under the valve cover. Everything looks fine on the outside. Nothing wrong with the connector and wiring harness looks fine. Hope to take the valve cover off today if time permits.