Hello all.
I was hoping to get some help with my 89 F150. It's a 2wd, 6 cyl. 5-speed.
Last February, the starter went out, so I bought a remanufactured starter from Advance Auto.
Two weeks ago, I went to start it, and all I got was a clicking from the starter solenoid. I replaced the cruddy looking battery termianls, and cleaned every wire connection on the solenoid, and the ground cable to the block. Same results. Even tried jumping it with the 95. I tapped on the starter, and it worked fine for a week. Then, I got the clicking from the solenoid. Wouldn't even turn the starter by jumping the starter wire to the + side of the solenoid.
I thought maybe it was a bad starter, so yesterday I bought another starter from a more reputable parts place. Got it in, and it started fine a couple of times. Got gas on the way to work this morning, and when I turned the key, I had nothing. No lights, nothing.
Put it on the trailer, and hauled it home. I put the battery from the 95 in it, and the dome light was on when the door was open. Turned the key to the on position, and everything is off again, no electric at all. I can pull the battery cables, and put them back on, but as soon as I turn the key, it's dead.
Could this be a bad ignition switch?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Bad Battery cables, change them.

 

Do you have a battery gauge? Is the battery actually running down? If it is cables is a good bet. You can also check the alternator. If it isn't charging right, every time you start the truck you suck the battery down. A brand new battery will only last a week in daytime driving, turn your lights on and you'll be lucky to get 2 days.

 

I replaced both battery cables last night, and it fired right up. Took it for a drive, and shut it down. Started it five or six times to play it safe, started fine every time.
Thanks for you help!
Ed

 

Subford, thanks tons for posting all this helpful stuff. I had the same problem, looked up this post, followed your advice and now my truck runs again.

My starter wasn't disengaging, so I replaced the fender mounted solenoid and it started a few times strongly. I ground off the rivets holding the old solenoid together, disassembled it, and saw where the contacts inside had welded themselves together.

So now the truck is working again. Started OK a half dozen times. Then today when I went to restart it, I heard the solenoid click, then nothing - no voltage anywhere seemingly - nothing showing on the ammeter in the dash cluster, no lights, nothing.

Let it sit a half hour. This time the ammeter comes up showing 13v, the solenoid clicks, then - nothing anywhere.

Let it sit a half hour, try it again; the ammeter comes up showing 13v, the solenoid clicks, then - nothing anywhere.


Bad connections at the battery cables was the problem.

When I unscrewed the battery post clamps from the battery cables (they weren't the crimped on kind), they were full of battery corrosion and arcing scars, so I carefully separated and scraped each individual wire in the end of cable til it was shiny ( took about 10 minutes at each end of each cable), wire brushed all inside the clamp and finished it off with dielectric grease before reassembly.

Fired right up.

I wonder if this was the case where high resistance in the battery cables causes a voltage drop which is compensated for by higher amperage, leading to welded contacts inside the starter relay.

One thing puzzles me though. I ohmed out the battery cables before I cleaned them; they had 0 ohms resistance everywhere, and was I getting full battery voltage through them (12.5v) all the way through the solenoid. Do I need a new volt/ohm meter?

thanks again

 

I would say yes that is the way it works.
No your meter is OK. The ohm meter uses at most a 9 Volt battery with very little current so you can not use an ohm meter to check battery cables. Voltage is the pressure to move electrons but if the electrons are not moving you will measure the full voltage. When they start to move you will get friction, generate heat, resistance and the voltage drops, the current goes up and contacts weld as the contacts get very hot and melt together. Or something like that.