1965 F250 with a 352.
So, I have an issue with my truck not wanting to turn over all of the time. I'll start it and drive it, but it won't want to turn over all of the time after being driven. The battery seems good, the little green eye is very green. This also happens when the truck is cold and I start it and drive it before it warms up, coming to an intersection it will stall and then the battery will act liike it's dead. I can then jump it and it starts right back up. Any ideas on this situation from my FTE gurus? Thanks

 

Could be your starter relay, starter or your battery connections. Start with the battery. Do a load test on it to confirm it is good.
Next, have your starter and relay tested. If they test fine, reinstall. We can look into it with more detail.

 

PWM,

It has been my experience over the time I messed with Carz & Trux that the greatest proportion of electrical gremlins, glitches, anomalies. etc are result of basic wiring or circuitry problems. Not necessarily incorrect, improper or damaged but defective through being poorly maintained or serviced.

Dirty, corroded or loose connections are probably #1. Next is the
matter of ground continuity through omission of stuff like body grounds, or redundant grounds such as neg battery to engine to frame in a linked manner. I have seen people change stuff when there was nothing wrong with it, and not solve the problem.

If you know all wires are good, all connections are clean, tight & have good, continuous conductivity, then check components like switches, solenoids, etc. etc. FBp

 

I always replace the battery cables, starter to relay cable and the relay. I also install loop connectors on the ignition and start wires at the relay. Add a good battery and if the budget allows a reman sstarter. My truck has never failed to start in 4 years and over 35K Miles. These parts are cheap, easy to install and solve about half the problems related to no-start and hard start, IMHO!

 

Check the battery to engine ground. I have found that quite often there is not good contact at this point. Sometimes after doing all the detailing and painting on the engine, the bolted connection at the block is not well cleaned. I like to run a tap through the bolt hole and remove the paint from the boss on the engine. A star type lock washer between the ground cable and the block also helps. Good luck.

 

This goes out to everyone since I have no where near the combined knowledge as the rest off ya.

What if the ignition switch had a bad connection on the start terminal but not the on terminal (Seeing as how he can pop-start it.) ?

Jim

 

Well he hasen't came back so either he is still stuck in an intersection somewhere or he has fixed the problem. I still think the problem is in cables/starter component issues. The additional battery cable on a jump start tells me thet the problem is likley in the cables/terminals.

 

I agree with you William,

I've usually/ generally found same thing.

It gets worse when EFI is involved. EFI System is dealing with Milli Volts, Milli Amps and Milli Ohms so conductivity becomes a critical issue. Seen a lot of "In Tank - Hi Output" Fuel Pumps replaced because Sys' had intermittent grounding prblms!

Jim, I hate to generalize when making speculative, conjectured, or hypothetical statements because exception is usually the rule, as we all learn(eventually). BUT logically speaking I think Ignition Switch internal contact condition affects system operation, later models especially. However, because of "rotary" design layout of FoMoCo Ign switches [prior to sliders in locking columns] they do not generally have internal problems.

I've seen them damaged from overtightening, "bakelite" cracked & contacts mis-align. . . .it seldom presents itself in intermittent manner. Switches also burn, again no intermittent symptoms.

I've seen switches with lubricant in contact chamber become intermittent, but doubt it's a common problem.

If I had it to "work on" I'd skip direct to starter solenoid with 12V
source to "engage" terminal" just to see what happened.

In most cases Starter either works, drags, or doesn't work in a consistent manner.

Possibly a solenoid may get intermittent, but not likely. Solenoids are rather simple, using Electro Magnet to close high amperage contacts.

I hope he posts what the problem & remedy was. It'd be nice to know.

FBp

 

Well guys, thanks for all of the info. A simple check of the system revealed a loose connection at the starter. William is the guru!