Hello all, new to the diesel world.

I have a 97 f350, manual transmission, 2wd, 7.3

I swapped the starter after my girl was cranking the truck on with the clutch not fully compressed and drove with it a little in first gear.

The starter then went out so i swapped it.
I then go to hook up the batter and the truck kept cranking. I dont like electric stuff so I swapped the solinoid. Truck kept on ghost cranking.

I then disconnected the solinoid to multimeter test somethings. With the solinoid completely disconnected it kept cranking. I then went to make sure the little starter wire wasn't touching anything and it's still cranking.

So. It appears to not be the starter or the fender solinoid. The fat 2gauge or whatever starter wire where it connects to the battery looks super ugly. But I'm just not sure if that's what's wrong.

Is the new starter bad?
Is this common?

 

It sounds like your new starer has a bad solenoid. Measure continuity on the two big lugs on the starter. If there is, your solenoid is bad.

 

wire to starter is not looking good, you need a new end crimped or replace the + cable assy

 

i have seen weak batteries cause a constant crank situation.
but it could also be wired wrong.