I’m getting no power to any of my lights or horn and when I turn the ignition to start the vehicle, I got a quick grinding sound and then no more sound, click or engine crank. I replaced my battery and the solenoid and that fixed it. today she started up and I went to the gas station, and when I went to start it again, exact same issue and symptoms. I tried jumping the solenoid with a screwdriver and I tried to bypass the solenoid by running a jumper wire from the positive battery terminal to the positive terminal on the coil and nothing happened. Do I have a faulty ignition switch or did I blow the brand new solenoid somehow? I’m at a loss.

 

Sounds like the negative side of the system. The new battery may have had to enough juice to over come it for a moment.
Check and clean and tighten all the cables and connectors and screws and etc between the battery and the engine block and the block and the firewall.
I've had those same symptoms and have usually just had to wiggle and tighten the battery negative post. Recently I had a hot start issue and removed and reattached all the negative side stuff, and that has fixed it.

 

Solenoids dont just go bad like that and when they do they get stuck when starting so when you let go of the key the starter stays engaged.

First you need to check the battery to make sure it has 12.6 volts fully charged.
While the battery is charging remove and clean the 2 battery cables. If you have the clamps that clamp on to the cable ends replace the cable as they can cause issues like you have.

Follow each cable and where they connect remove the cable and clean with a wire brush & sand paper till shiny.
For the ground side the cable should go to the motor and to the frame so both get grounded.
You should also have a 10 ga wire from the motor / intake if v8 to the cab firewall to ground the cab.
You may also want to run a 10 ga wire from frame to the bed somewhere so the bed has a good ground.
The starter solenoid has to be grounded at it's mount so remove it and clean the mounting area.

If you still dont have any power we will need to do more digging but all of the above has to be good before you move on.
Dave ----

 

I was having similar issues. I did what FuzzFace listed about cleaning the connections and so far so good.

 

I had everything in the cab go dead on my '65 F-350... turns out the big power feed wire had lost contact because its pin on the bulkhead (firewall) connector was corroded right through and broke off Rather than attempt to replace both halves of the connector, I spliced the wire and ran it through a grommet...

 

OK sounds good. I will try all these this weekend with my fingers crossed! Thanks for everyone’s tips.

 

Repeat this mantra over and over til you are done cleaning, tightening, and checking.

 

Ok so finally had some time to work on the truck. I found that both battery terminals were badly corroded and the cable going from the solenoid to a starter and the grounding strap. I replaced all of those. I replaced the ignition switch but the switch the parts store gave me had an extra terminal blade outside of the black plastic backing where the main wires plug in. The plug in the wiring harness fit fine and at this point I just wanted to see if it would work so I didn’t return it yet.

after all this nothing changed. I still have no power going to any of my lights no sound when I turn the key. I did read that if the key is turned to accessory and you put a test light on the small red and blue striped wire going to the S terminal on the solenoid that there should be power coming through that line. I do not have power there. I’m at a loss. I’m wondering if somehow I fried my solenoid because everything is not working exactly the same as before I swapped the solenoid. If you guys remember, I had this issue, replaced the solenoid. Everything worked fine for a few days and then the problem occurred again and that is where I’m at now.

Picture for reference. Large black cable on the right is going to my starter.

 

What is the small red wire for that's connected on the starter cable post on the solenoid? I'm guessing that shouldn't be there. How does power get from the battery to the fuse block? I don't see anything on the battery side of the solenoid to feed anything.

 

If memory serves, that red wire that you have connected to the bolt on the solenoid should be on the battery side (red wire) instead of the black wire to the starter.

Tom

 

From what I’ve read and videos, I watched I believe the red wire is what goes to the ignition switch that provides power to the solenoid? Are you guys saying that I should swap the red and brown wires around?

 

No. not at this time at least. One of "those" wires is for the start position on your key switch and the other "should" be for providing a full 12V to the coil while cranking the engine over to make it start easier.

The red wire on the right with the yellow insulation "should" be on the left with the heavy red wire from the battery positive. If it is on the side that goes to the starter as in your picture, you'll get no power to the key switch.

Tom

 

The red/blue stripe and the brown wires are on correctly but as pointed out by others the red wire on the starter side of the relay shouldn't be there. If a 1964 is the same colors as a 65 then there should be a heavy black/yellow stripe wire connected to the Bat side of the start relay. Take a picture form at a little longer distance so we can see the cowl and all the wires.

 

@Crop Duster is correct that it should not be a red wire. But...maybe the correct one could have been replaced which is what I was thinking.

Before doing the wire side to side swap/ Trace the wire and tell/show us it where it goes.

Tom

 

I am in agreement with others that the red wire on the starter side of the solenoid needs to be moved to the battery side of the solenoid, assuming that is the wire feeding power to the fuse panel.


The blue arrow and the wire that connects to that goes back to "start" terminal on the starter switch and is only energized when you turn the key to start the engine. That actuates the high amp pass through on the solenoid to feed the starter for cranking

The red arrow pointing to the brown wire should send a full 12v to the positive side of the coil during cranking when key is is start position. It bypasses the resistor wire (ballast resistor) that feeds the coil reduced voltage when the key is in run position.

The green arrow should be the 12v feed to the fuse panel, from factory this would have been a fusable link for circuit protection and very well could have been replaced in the past and why the colors no longer match factory schematics.