Hello, well I haven't posted much. But, I often lurk here alot. Time to ask for soem advice myself. Let me start by giving some specs. I have a 1973 Ford F-250 3/4 Ton 4x4 chassis with a 1949 Ford F-1 body. It has the NP435 tranny with 360 motor, 2 barel carb. Now for the problems. I drove this truck about 4 months ago to work and stopped at a store on the way home came out to the truck and could not get this truck to start for the life of me. I had it towed home and began my troubleshooting. I found that the coil was bad. So, I replaced it. I still wasn't getting any spark. I am getting fuel and the carb was recently rebuilt. Anyway, I took the plunge and converted it to Electronic ignition (Just went with the stock replacement.) It was points ignition and I found that the lobes were worn down quite a bit somethign was wrong with it internally as I could never get the points to keep their gap. After trying to start a few times I decided to have my battery tested (I bought it only a year ago). So off to Sears I went. They found that my battery was bad so they gave me a new replacement. Now, here comes the problem. I installed the battery, cranked it over and it just barely cranks over. Very slow rotation. (kinda makes that slow starting sound) I tried this battery in my 76 Mercury Marquis and it fired up no problem. Barely had to hold the key. So, I know the battery is good on that end. Now, the question, does anyone know what else I could check ? I am at the point that I have replaced everything. I see no reason why its not starting. It has spark and fuel just very slow rotation. Could it be the starter or solenoid ? or could it be that my motor is now shot. It has about 120k miles on it. Thanks in advance.

 

I take it the truck has been sitting these last 4 months?check your cables,ground connections make sure the cables are not corroded cut back the insulation about an inch from the ends and look at the cable if there green replace them do a starter draw test most auto parts stores sell a small inductive amp meter for this at about 10 bucks or less if the cables are good it shouldn't draw more than 200 amps

 

I have the same chassis, but '74, and I'm going to do the same thing with, maybe, a '51.

I would check all connections, battery to solenoid, solenoid to starter, and ground. Then I would check the starter, than the solenoid. If you tried to start the motor a lot I would bet it is a fried connection, but, it could be a worn starter or solenoid. Good luck.

 

You say you replaced the ignition, is the timing way too far advanced? Trying to fire while the pistons are coming up?
Check all of your connections like mentioned in the last post, and try retarding the timing some and see if this helps. If not, pull the started and have it tested.
Jimmy

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to take a close look at the cables tomorrow and see if that could be a problem. I'm using the fattest cables I could get. I forget the gauge. Maybe like 4 or 6 gauge battery cables. I completely rewired this truck about 8 months ago along with new battery cables and rerouted the battery to the inside of the bed. I'll give an update tomorrow evening and post what I found.

 

Well, I took a closer look and found that the battery cables are fine. I'm replacing the starter cable and going from there. It turns out that my battery cables are 1 gauge. I remember going with some fat ones.