My powerstroke van has been having intermittent issues with cranking. It happened once about 6 months ago when I first bought the van, but then it never happened again until recently. Now it's happening every few days.

When it happens, I go to turn the key and nothing happens except a click. Dash gets power. Glow plugs cycle. Tried in neutral, but also no crank. Usually after a few minutes of fooling with it it'll randomly crank and start. I do notice that when it does finally crank, it seems a little sluggish initially on the crank. Read another forum that never got closed out that another guy noticed his would crank if he turned the wheel. I tried that this morning. I turned the wheel a little and it cranked (a little sluggishly) and started. I can't be sure that turning the wheel was the thing that caused it to crank, it could have just been a coincidence, but still worth noting. Also worth noting is that I noticed that when I park it, most times I get a noticable click into park, but sometimes I can't feel that click. Can't help but wonder if the times it no-cranks correspond prior time I parked and didn't get that "into park click". There's definitely slop in the shifter indicating the bushings need replacement.
Wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and if they discovered the solution. I'm all ears.

 

Have you tried pulling up on the shifter further into park position as you try to start it or put it in neutral when trying to start it? is the shifter sloppy at all?

 

I have done both lifting up the shifter further into park and also attempting to start it in neutral. Neither allows it to crank. I do have a fair amount of slop in the shifter, but I'm 90% sure I've ruled out the neutral safety.
Its just weird because it'll start after a few minutes of trying, but I can't for the life of me figure out what changed when it does start. It's a gremlin.

 

Have you checked the basics like battery cable and connection integrity? Do you have a second hidden battery that might not be pulling its weight?

Is there a starter relay you can check while turning the key to isolate the problem as upstream or downstream of that point?

Sixto
07 E350 5.4 183K miles

 

7.3 diesel vans come from the factory with 2 batteries. The frame mounted one gets overlooked. But i would suspect the start solenoid as tabijan sugested. Dirty contacts or just a bad solenoid.