Last night truck wouldn’t start. Single click followed by a whining noise.

Is it most likely the ignition coil or ignition module? Ive just replaced batter, battery cables, and starter solenoid.

 

was it possibly the starter bendix not engaging the flywheel? did you try it again?

 

I take it you went back to make sure a connection nut didn't back off or anything?
I would guess the module before the coil, but you can test the coil with an ohm meter. The specs should be widely available online. Not sure if the McParts stores can still test the modules, but it's worth a shot.

The whining noise is intriguing, because my truck did something similar two weeks ago.

I'd run the radio all day while working on the truck, and dragged the battery down a little, and when I went to start it up, it cranked slow and emitted some sort of higher pitched whining sound. I waited till the seatbelt buzzer stopped and tried again, and it started right up.

On my truck I'm using a big cable, like from a starter, to ground from my engine block to my cab. It doesn't make the best connection at the firewall, and will glaze up after a while. Once it glazes up, the starter will crank slow while the seatbelt buzzer is on, if the engine is warmed up! I can turn on every light and accessory, and as long as the buzzer isn't sounding, the starter will crank normally. It also cranks normally with the buzzer on during almost every cold-start.
I need to pick me up a real ground-strap for it.

 

So, I replaced them both and nothing. Right now I have a new starter solenoid, new battery cables, new ignition coil, and new ignition module. Single click at the starter solenoid, then nothing.

What else could it be? starter switch? something in the distributer?

 

New parts today are not what they were 20 years ago. Most stuff produced today is crap, and not just auto parts.

You are better off going through and methodically testing everything to see where the fault lies. You can pick up a multi-meter pretty cheaply at Harbor Fright or probably a hardware store, and troubleshoot the problem yourself. It might seem like rocket science if you've never messed with electronics, but it's really not too difficult once you learn what the features are on the meter and figure out which wires to probe.

You could check to make sure that there is a ground between the engine and the cab. My truck was missing the body ground when I got it, but the only symptom I noticed was that the starter would run away.

It sounds to me like your battery is dead or there's a bad connection. I like to try the battery in another car to test it, or throw a known good battery in the truck to see if it'll crank over.

 

You haven't stated if you have tested the starter itself.

 

heading to test the starter now

 

I agree with the previous poster about replacement parts. The starter relay solenoids sold today at the auto parts stores are junk. The generic battery cables sold in blister pacs are junk. They are maybe OK on a small 4 cylinder, but they are poor quality at best with crap terminals just soldered on, and deform after tightening. Acceptable electrical parts don't really cost much more, but they are a little tougher to find.

One easy "field test" when the engine won't turn over, it won't crank, is turn on the headlights. If the battery is reasonably charged they should be nice and bright. Then try to see what they do when cranking, do they stay bright, or choke off and dim down severely? Normally the lights will only dim slightly when starting the engine.

A dead or dying starter will hog all the current. Sometimes a few "love taps" with a hammer on the starter case will get a few more starts out of it. If that works, a trip to the auto parts store would be a good plan. (Or not, because the starters they sell usually aren't any better than the starter relays.)

 

New starters are available from Rock Auto.

 

new starter did the trick. All three of the parts I replaced were on the list to replace anyway so now I have a almost completely new ignition system.

the only boneheaded thing I forgot to do was recap the ignition coil. After five minutes of cranking my awesome sounding new starter I realized she wouldn’t fire up until I connected that thing

now all good

thanks for all the help!

 

Glad to help.

 

Hold on to your old parts as the new stuff is junk.
You replace a lot of parts that did not need to, and to replace just because they are old runs into what I posted above!

Your first post of a "click & noise" had noting to do with the ICM or coil motor did not even crank / turn over.
BTW I have never in my 50 years working on cars seen a coil go bad.

A click & noise is a bad starter connection. Either both battery connection, ground at motor, cable connections at solenoid & starter are bad.
If the battery cables are old yes replace them as you cannot tell if bad by looking at them. If you have to old ones cut them open and tell us what you find inside?

The new solenoid is most likely junk and when it sticks and keep cranking the motor with key off put your old one back on and keep on trucking.
Keep the old ICM under the seat as a back up for when the new one also craps out.

Now it could have vary well been a bad starter but you messed with all the cable connections at the same time so hard to tell.
BTW how is the cable between the motor to frame and the wire from motor to body at firewall?
Dave ----

 

I read some interesting posts about that at another forum, Ford Barn probably. Jim Linder, of Bubba's Ignition in Indiana, taught a course on automotive ignition.

One of the local places Sears or somebody like that, provided a 55 gallon drum chock full of used or discarded round ignition coils accumulated over many years. He said the classes would go through and test them, and I think he said out of all those coils they only found 5 or 6 bad ones. I've read they need to be tested at normal operating temperature (as do ignition condensers); but it does seem that it is almost automatic for the DIYer to replace the ignition coil unnecessarily whenever trouble occurs.

One thing that surprises me is how much less reliable the "one coil per cylinder" or coil on plug design seems to be in modern cars and trucks.

 

Not so mysterious, if you consider when these modern coils were produced...

 

Thanks for the advice. I did keep the old ignition coil and the control module. I tested them both (albeit after I pulled them out) and they both checked out. The starter was just bad. As soon as. I put the new one it it fired right up. I should have started there. Connections were all good. I didn’t mention the starter had been struggling a bit since I bought the truck this summer. For good measure I replaced the cable from the starter solenoid to the starter too.

Frankly, all three of these parts were so easy to replace. I spent more time driving to Autozone than it took to put them in.