Hey all,

Just bought an 85 F-150 2 wheel with the I6 300 and 4 speed manual. Went and paid for it today and ad er brought over to the house by my trusty towing service. The info I had about the truck prior was that the engine was still strong and the trans was great too. Only problem was she wouldnt start. Once I got it to the house started replacing all the usual tune up stuff and of course dropped in a new battery just cause. Replaced the solenoid Starter both battery cable the solenoid to starter power cable. cap rotor pluga and wires. After all that I hopped in and tried to crank her up. Had power was happy then A single loud Click. At first I thought maybe I had the starter a little out of position so I pulled it and reset it in there then tried it again and same result one single loud click. Kinda sounds like the solenoid is kicking and the starter hops then stops and then nothing. Havent replaced the Ign Mod yet or the coil . My Ign mod is on the distributor if that helps. I even unplugged the single wire lead from the coil like I would If i were trying to time it up. Never been through this before have had problems but nothing this wierd. I'm not in-depth knowledgeable on electrical stuff and this is drivin me nuts. Need help. Supposed to be taking this truck 300+ miles up north this weekend. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.

 

One loud click at the starter or at the solenoid? Will the engine turn by hand?

 

Will starter run when removed from engine?

 

Can't tell where teh click is coming from. It is so loud that it could be coming from either one. THe starter will run though. Took it to autozone to make sure and they had it running on their machine. Moving around some ground wires today. Gonna re-position them and try to get better metal to metal connections see if that does anything.

 

Check the bushings in the starter. I had one once that bushings were so worn that it would lock up against the ring gear when it tried to engage. With the starter off the truck, I'd try push starting the truck just to see if it would run ok without any unusual noises. Flywheel could be loose on the crankshaft or clutch stuck causing starter to bind.

 

well started raining so I'm pretty much done for today. Took the starter off and had it tested at autozone no problems thing was flying. they swapped my a new solenoid just in case and gave me a few pointers on teh grounds. Moved around ym ground wires and stuff and now everything is coming on no problems. Much better ground. Solenoid now clicks like mad but still wont kick the starter. Got my light tester out and with the key on start solenoid clicking and no power coming out of the solenoid to the starter. Tried 3 different solenoids now and all 3 do the same thing. Cleaned up all the areas around the starter got all the grease and grime off it and had good metal to metal at the bolt holes. Still nothing. Wont even make a noise. When I jump a screw driver across hot to the starter line it clicks the starter and thats it nothing else. The click is just like a power click not loud at all was very hard to hear at first. I put all new cables on and that got me thinking. Is it possible that the power lines are too big?? I put 2 guage on the pos from the battery and the line from solenoid to starter my ground lines are all brand new 4 guage. Could it be that the 2 guage is too big and its just loosing all the power in the line before the solenoid and theres nothing left to push through to the starter? If it stops raining I think I'll go pick up some 4 or 6 guage for the positive side of the battery and the solenoid to starter line, who knows maybe that will help. This is just taxing cause I know that somewhere else there is an issue with the coil passing power to the distributor but it makes it real hard to troubleshoot that if I cant even get her to crank. I'm open to any suggestions. To calrify how I got it all hooked up here goes.

From battery Pos 12inch 2 guage cable to the post on the solenoid (fender mounted solenoid). Negative side battery 4 guage line going to the engine then to the frame. Also after only getting the one click at the solenoid I put a secondary ground on the solenoid straight to the frame ( after I did that now I get the constant clicking witht he key on start). Solenoid is wired like-so. Top post power from the battery also has 2 different fuseable links that give power to everything else ( haven't traced those yet). S lead on solenoid is the ignition signal wire. Nothing on I post. Bottom post is my solenoid to starter line 2 guage wire about 40 or so inches long.

Not gonna go through anymore cause until i get the starter to turn theres no point in checking the rest.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. With my test light all the lines get power except for the solenoid to starter line. No matter what position the ign switch is in no power goes through it at the post. Makes me think the solenois id bad but I have 3 new ones from autozone and all 3 do the same thing.


One thing I forgot to add as far as the clutch. you mentioned the clutch could be stuck. If thats the case how can i release it. Its a hydraulic clutch .. all my other trucks have had mechanical so I don't know the ins and outs of the hydraulic clutches. When I try to start the engine though the difference is huge as far as the clutch ignition switch. I have to put the clutch almost through the floor to get the ign switch to let me try and start the truck. Not sure what adjustments I can make there but , could that be a factor? Starter would still do something and make noise if that happened wouldn't it?

 

1. Larger the wires the lower their resistance so less voltage drop i.e., larger is better.
2. If a starter is locked up so it can't turn, it can "fry" the solenoid contacts pretty quick! Maybe 1000 Amperes or more! Sounds like to me what has happened.
3. Clutch pedal operates clutch master cylinder and thus clutch slave cylinder. Same principle as brake system. Check for low fluid level and air in system. I'm not sure but I think you can see the clutch slave cylinder pushrod move when the pedal is depressed (have someone operate pedal while you look). You might have to remove the bottom flywheel cover to see if its moving the throwout bearing. Even if the clutch disk is stuck, the starter should be able to turn the engine if the transmission is in neutral.
4. Not uncommon for clutch disk to stick to flywheel if truck sat up for a while in humid area. Push with another vehicle or manually rock back and forth (in high gear) with pedal depressed.
5. With transmission in neutral you should be able to turn the engine by hand using fan belts or with a socket wrench on the harmonic balancer. Or, using a screwdriver on the flywheel ring gear.
6. Is the battery fully charged now? A bunch of "fast clicks" from the solenoid is usually a symptom of a very "low" battery.

 

Well not much more i can do today killed the battery testing just about every possible thing i could think of so got the charger on it now so should be able to start fresh tomorrow. Couldn't test out the way I got it set up right now but hopefully maybe she will start in the morning. If the rain stops tomorrow I'll be able to get under it and check the clutch and turn the engine by hand a few times. Current problem persists so far though not getting power past the solenoid. Wasn't even getting power to the starter when I jumped it straight to the battery so for right now all my troubleshooting is leaning toward my ground wires. Reset all those in new spots scrapped the hell out of all the connections so hope that is what it needed. I'll find otu tomorrow when the battery is charged up if it worked. If not gotta keep screwing with em till i get the right set up I guess. Grounds are getting enough to be good for the headlights and stuff but not enough power to even push the solenoid right now so I get to wait anxiously till my battery is charged up. If anyone has anymore suggestions or stuff to try just in case what I did so far doesn't work please let me know.

 

I had a similar situation. I replaced battery, starter, solenoid, ran a completely new pushbutton start switch because I thought perhaps the ignition switch was bad. It turned out to be a bad ground. I found out by running a wire directly to the body of the starter and then to the ground side of battery. It worked fine then. As it turns out the ground strap from the engine to the frame had unseen corrosion under it.

 

Ok day 2. Fixed my ground problem so starter is turning the engine now I just need to get it to fire up. Checked all ignition pieces everything s good. getting spark in all 6 cylinders. Getting gas at carb and gas is getting to the cylinders also. Loosened up my dist clamp and tried nudgeing it a little at a time to get her to fire up but have gone almost a 1/2 inch both directions and it still wont fire. Have gotten both exhaust and carburator back fires but no life from the engine as of yet. Could I end up needing new timing everything. Havent started tearing it down yet but I'm getting close I cant get any rumble fromt eh engine nothing but backfires. Also pulled the spout connector off while i have been tapping the distributor little by little. No joy yet engine sat awhile and is squeaky as hell when the starter is turning it but I hope once she fires that will solve itself. Gas smells good doesnt have that horendous bad gas smell or anything like that. Havent tried starting it with starting fluid yet but I'm getting there too. Got the battery charge back on it right now. Anyone got any tips or pointers or ideas please drop me a line. I really dont wanna rip it apart and replace timing if I dont have to.

 

Im wondering how long it sat. Not running. The gas could be bad, or have water in it, and not smell bad.

 

well figured out the problem. Lower end of the engine is bad. Did compression tests and 5 of the 6 cylinders didnt even register more than 15 psi. cylinder 2 had 0. SO today I'm trying to find another engine. I can get a 302 for it but not sure what all i would need to change to get that to slap right in so still making phone calls looking for a 300. Yanking the engine out today so I'll at least have a block to experiment on. I live in the hampton roads area in VA so if anyone happens to know of an engine in the area thats looking for a new home or knows of a place that can get me one fast please let me know.

 

Sounds like to me its jumped time. Sure you don't just need a new timing gear?

 

pretty sure timing is good on it. Pulled the cover off and all the teeth looked good none chipped or broken off. Everythng was lining up like it was supposed to. But little something that made me happy while i was searching for a 300 earlier today I found a guy that had a 77 f150 with a 400 and a c6 for super cheap. So of course I bought it. Just got it to the house an hour or so ago. Thing sounds beautiful. I was starting to miss the smell of raw exhaust, I feel much better now after spending a good half hour with the 400 getting to know her hehehe. So now my big decision is do i transplant the 400 and c6 to my 85 or do I do the body work and suspension work on the 77. So far I'm thinking about restoring the 77 rather than revive the 85. Either way I'll still prolly pull the 300 out of the 85 and rebuild just for a side project and may even decide to go full out and see if i can get it to push out 550 horse and get her up into the mid 600's torque. Not sure yet though.

Thanks for the help so far on the 85 though. Lot of the stuff you guys said helped narrow down on the list of possibles as to why it wouldn't turn over.

Kind of excited now though. This is the first 400 I have been able to get my hands on. been through windsors and 390's so i'm looking forward to working with a 400. Should be fun. I'm sure I'll be posting pics of the 77 befores and afters if I do decide to take her from her current Dragqueen look back into promqueen condition. Thanks again guys and I'm sure I'll be needing help on something or other in the future.

 

i say keep workin on thr 300. the only sure fire method i have seen to start a vehicle if the pop the clutch while moving trick. ur feul pump should be mechanical, as i have an 84 300 and mine is. i have done that trick on numerous occasions when the truck shows signs of PMS.

i see u got another truck. cool man and congrats. hope she runs good for ya, but personally just for prides sake, id get that 300 runnin (with out spending any cash lol)