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Old Nov 9, 2007 | 01:43 PM
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84 starter

i think the starter is done on my 84 6.9 van. it appears to be the delco kind and it has ten teeth. i happen to have the replacement starter (mitsubishi kind with 12 teeth i think) for my 85 f250 sitting here and was wondering if they're interchangeable? the bolt pattern looks the same but the round, scoopy housing part looks a little different so i'm not sure.
 
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Old Nov 9, 2007 | 03:19 PM
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From: Faibanks Ak.
on manual trans they are the same not sure on autos.
 
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Old Nov 9, 2007 | 08:55 PM
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well i put the gear reduction starter on and it tries to start the engine and just makes that rapid clicking noise when it's not getting enough power. i checked and my batteries are only 850 ca with a june 06 sticker on em.
so i tried jumping it with some kinda crappy (not much contact area/ force) jumper cables to my friend's v6 pontiac.
what next? try different jumper cables/bigger helper engine? change the batteries? the cables? i can't find where the ground wire for the starter goes off to, to it could be a bad ground i suppose?
aaaaaaagggggghhh
 
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Old Nov 9, 2007 | 09:01 PM
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I would inspect the battery cables very closely.

Not sure how they run in an E series, but look at the battery last in line before the cable goes down to the starter.
Any signs the cable has been hot there probably means it is not making a good connection inside the terminal.
 
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Old Nov 12, 2007 | 11:19 AM
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looks to be some corrosion inside the terminal. resistance tested from the terminal to the cable going to the starter right after the terminal and it's huge. so i guess i gotta replace that. funny how it dies so suddenly, i would have thought corrosion would slowly bring down the cranking rpm but it went fast.
 
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Old Nov 12, 2007 | 05:32 PM
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The corrosion did happen slowly.
In fact it was so slow you never noticed the starter slowing down.

Bad cables will definitely cook a starter way before it should die.
Also since the charge going back into the batteries has to go through that same connection, so they are probably not up to par either.

One of the reasons I like volt meters over amp guages.
 
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 08:53 PM
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so i changed out the terminal and the starter cable (not a new cable, but one that didn't look roasted from an f250). jumped it and got it to rev good briefly, only turns good rpms for like for a couple seconds. . but the engine hasn't caught in that amount of time.. maybe load test the batteries? batteries are at 12.5 volts in 70ish weather.
 
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 09:59 PM
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Load test the batteries.
If they have 12.5 volts now, how much voltage do they have after 20 seconds of a 300 amp draw?
That is about what your starter is drawing while you are cranking.

Run a resistance check on the cable you installed.

I cut the passenger side battery terminal open when I was having starting problems.
Even though the cable looked perfect on the outside, when I saw the inside I have no idea how the truck had been starting for a long time.
The last 4" of cable was green on both sides of the terminal.
The 3/0 wire going down to the starter had been hot enough to melt the copper wire, big ***** of copper stuck to the ends of the strands.

From the outside this cable looked great, but you could tell it had been hot, the insulation was brittle.
 
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Old Nov 16, 2007 | 02:17 PM
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how do i do a load test with a multimeter? it seems like an awful lot of current to be working with and i don't wanna blow my meter.

i'll go test that resistance and post it here soon.
 
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Old Nov 16, 2007 | 05:31 PM
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sanded off the connections and got .8 ohms from the driver's side battery to the terminal connector on the other end of the cable. also got .8 ohms end to end on the starter cable.

also noticed today after letting the batteries sit with grounds disconnected for a couple days that the passenger side battery (the one going to the starter) is drained to 10.4V already whereas the driver side battery still tested 12.4V - they were both 12.5V a couple days ago.
 
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Old Nov 16, 2007 | 06:48 PM
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From: Faibanks Ak.
sounds like you have a bad battery when hooked togetherit will draw the other one down. if you just peplace the bad one the other one will keep the new one drawed down to its level.
 
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Old Nov 16, 2007 | 08:59 PM
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Depending on how good your meter is, .8 ohms is a lot when you are trying to get 300 amps through the cable.

From my power formulas it looks like about 70 amps are lost to resistance at .8 ohms.

With cable that big, you should see O ohms resistance in that short distance.

You have to have a load tester to do that test.
Most auto parts stores have the equipment to check the battery out and do it for free.
 
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