I need some help from you Ford truck guys. I've got a 1993 Ford Ranger XLT. It's a 5-speed; 4 cyclinder. The other day my mom was driving it and she went into a store and came back out and tried to start it and nothing happend. No click from the starter or the relay, lights worked, radio worked, headlights, dash lights, they all worked. After a few tries she got it to start. She drives it home and shuts it off, goes back out later, won't start, but all the lights are working still, she tries it a few more times and now the starter relay makes the popping noise. We thought it might be the relay, swapped one from our ford van, not the problem, van runs fine with the trucks relay, truck still wont start, by the way we did try jumping the relay and it tried to turn over, but it only tried once, out of probably 15 tries at jumping it. Well, we take off the starter, take it down to Autozone and get it tested. It spins just fine, but loses power. starts at 150 amps, goes down to under 100 in just 2 seconds. so we figure, well, since its losing power, it might just not be able to work under a load, so we buy a new starter. Still didn't fix the problem. The relay clicks and so does the starter now, we checked the power wires and the starter is getting power, its trying to spin the flywheel, but acting like it cant. At least thats how it appears. We have a new ignition switch, but since everything is getting power and trying to start, we dont think that could be the problem. Anybody got any suggestions or ideas. Thanks in advance.

 

if it were me i'd take the new starter back and have it tested, maybe you got a faulty new one.

 

Are you sure the battery is ok? It sounds like it could be a simple as a weak battery.
Dave

 

Alright, well, the battery is 1 day old. We looked into it and asked some people we knew and one guy thought that we had an open circuit somewhere, something just wasn't right in the electric area. Turns out that the biggest ground wire that comes from the negative post on the battery was broken. My dad was out there spittin nails and I just started following the ground wires and he was complaing about how he couldn't see where it went, and I just followed it with my finger from above the motor, while he was underneath and I said this wire in my hand is the ground, and he said "and its broke too" Went and replaced the cable, vualah. Thanks for the replies though, 2 in just an hour or so, thats some feedback. Thanks again.