Guys as you may have seen in my other thread from yesturday, I experianced a no start condition saturday morning in my '99 Expy Eddie Bauer with 5.4L. I thought in was the starter as it would not crank over but come sunday when I got back in it to work on it it cranked right over and started right up. Now this morning when headed out to work I get in my truck and it wont crank anymore. The only difference between the sunday morning when it did start and saturday and this morning is that it was cold outside both days it did not start and it was nice and warm sunday morning. What could be causing this to happen? It has started in colder temps the last few weeks without any issues... maybe a slight shake after startup but that quickly would go away. Here is what it is doing, it does not click at all, all the lights on the dash come on, and the radio wont work. Even if I turn the key backwords to turn the power onto the radio it wont come on. Now watch later on this afternoon when I get off work it probably will start right up. Sunday morning I did check the connections to the battery and the starter itself and they looked fine except the possitive terminal on the battery had a very slight dusting of past corrossion on it left over from when the factory battery took a dump. In its place is an Optima Red top battery that has a good charge in it, I knwo this cause I tried jumping it saturday morning and it made no difference.

The temperature outside saturday and monday morning was probably in the high or low 50's and sunday it was probably in the upper 60's to low 70's when I got to it.

Any and all help is greaty appreciated guys!

Shane

 

Could I be experiencing a PATS problem? I have been doing some searching around all this morning on these forums and I read about where people were having similar problems that had to do with their PATS system.

Shane

 

PATS will not cause a no crank fault on your truck. It wil exhibit as a FLASHING THEFT light, will crank, but will not start.

If you have a voltmeter, you will need to measure across what should be solid connections to find where the voltage is being "dropped". That will be your faulty connection or conductor.

I'd bet on a faulty connection, either at the battery or at the opposite end of the battery cable, especially the ground cable. Other possibilities are out there, but check this first.

Steve

 

Steve,

As predicted when I got home from work in the heat of the day it started right up without hesitation and without me tweeking anything from how it was this morning. The only thing that has changed is outside temperature. I think my plan of attack is going to be to get some cleaner and attack the positive and negative battery terminals along with all the connections at the starter. Where is the ground cable at?

Shane

 

Well from what I can tell I cleaned the terminals on the starter and the battery itself. I took my expy to Advance and Autozone yesturday. Autozone tried telling me that on start up my starter was pulling 247 amps but when I told that to Advance they sorta thought that Autozone was nuts lol! Well Advance tested my Optima battery and it tested fine. I'll have to see what happens this coming morning.

Shane

 

Alright guys it did it again, it did not start this morning. I have not a clue what to do next. I dont know if I should bight the bullet and replace the starter or what. Can anyone give me any advice and if it comes down to me having to replace the starter then could someone tell me how its done because its mighty crampt in there and the passenger side exhaust manifold seems to be in the way.

Shane

 

Well as expected when I got home from work last night my expy did start up. So I went to town with PB Blaster any and all grounds that I could find. I somehow missed this (see pics). So I disconnected the battery, unbolted the power cable to the starter actuator, used a wire brush to scrape it clean, then hit it with PB Blaster again, then put it all back together. So this morning when I went out to it my expy started! It was a little rough at startup and the engine ran a little rough at first which could have to do with it needing to relearn everything since all I did after I disconnected the battery last night was make sure that it still started and then just shut it off. So I am happy that it now starts and gets me to work, but I am not sure if I am out of the dark yet with it.




Shane