New to the forum....New to FORDS in general. This is my first Ford, a 65 F100. Bought it to maybe make a period correct style truck. Drove it home and learned that for some reason now it needs to be jumped to start, even though the battery shows 12v. Never did it when I would go and look at it (started right up 3 times on different days, to include when I picked it up).

So I am thinking it is a ground related problem. The battery has the hot wire going to the noid, and the ground to the engine (a 302). I dont see a ground from the engine to the chassis anywhere. There is the wire from the solenoid to the starter as well, and I dont see another wire on the starter anywhere. there are 2 small posts on the noid as well, and only one has a wire on it. I am guessing this is for the power from the switch/button (has a push button to start) to activate the noid. what is the 2nd post for and do I need to ground the battery/engine better?

I need all the help here I can get...LOL.

 

i run a 223 and the battery ground right behind it on the firewall. and the positive goes to the solenoid, which in turn goes to the starter. thats pretty much all the wires needed to start mine. i had a starting proplem because i had a bad connection on the battery terminals. i tightened them up and eventually replaced them, and i never had the problem again.

this may be of a little help

 

Carny, Welcome to the Nations Truck Stop

Hmmmm, The 302 is a transplant so anything that should be might not be. An engine to chassis ground is a very good thing. I think I might add one just for kicks and giggles.

John

 

Ok, the + cable from the battery goes to the large post on the solenoid closest to the battery. Also connected is a yellow wire and a larger black wire from the alternator harness. Then another wire, black with yellow stripe connects to the same post coming from the gauge harness. The large post on the opposite side has the cable going to the starter. The - battery cable goes straight to the block.The small post on the solenoid labeled "S" has a red wire with green stripe which also connects to the coil. The post labeled "I" has a black wire connected to it which comes from the ignition which is in the gauge harness. The engine block ground is usually connected to either cylinder head, most of the time the passenger side, and then goes straight to the firewall.

One thing to check is what voltage the battery is being charged at besides sorting out all the wires. A volt meter should show around 13.6-13.9v when the engine is running. If not you will end up with a dead battery if it is lower. If it is higher then watch out as you will overcharge and possibly cause the battery to burp acid all over your tray and inner apron leading to "RUST."

Well that should be enough to get you started. If your wires look bad then you might want ot get new harnesses which I did. A alternator to regulator feed, a dash to engine gauge feed and maybe a dash panel to headlamp junction feed. The first two are pretty important if any of your wire looks modified or burned like some of mine did.

 

heck the first thing to do is clean you battery posts I have seen this on more than one occasion the positive post turns a dark grey and the alternator does not charge correctly. There are lots of applications that only have the Three wires comming off the starter solinoid. The forth post is for the ignition and it puts juice out when the engine is cranking. most applications dont use this one.

 

I had a very similar experiance with my truck before I had the tear it down. The starter solinoid internal contacts were covered in carbon from making contacts over the years. I only know this after the starter cable lug melted out of the soliniod. So replace the $12.00 part with a new one and see how it starts.

 

I had a problem like this one a few years back. It turned out to be the battery.
You could start it cold in the morning just fine but once the engine warmed up it couldn't start with out a helper jump.

 

You have 2 small terminals on the solinoid, one marked S and one marked I, the I is probubly the one missing and it is suppose to go directly to the"+" terminal on the coil, this gives 12v to the coil during crank. The S terminal needs 12v to crank the engine. If you have a starter button, make sure you have 12v to the button , and that when you push the button you get 12v to that S terminal. Also the solinoid is grounded threw the base, so it has to be clean and tight.

 

not all fords used the ignion terminal they were feed through the ignion switch with a resistance wire to the coil that ran 12 volts at start and reduced to 6 to 8 volt while running chek your battery connections first at batt and soloenoid and block check your solenoid mounting that the bolts are tight and not rusted a star washer under the bolt help tremedously if it dont have a block to body ground add one or it could just be a intemitten open with tour start button jump from the s terminal to the batt side of the solenoid and see if it will start with out jumping. also load test your battery it may read 12 volts but have a dead sell and not supply enough amperage to crank it over