Bronco would not start yesterday morning after a night in the 20's. I jumped it with the Stang and went on. I planned on leaving it running and turned it off and had to have another jump. This time i left it running for over an hour at the office. Turned it offf and started it 3 hours later no problem drove home left it running for 20 minutes. I never had lights or anything on. Came out of gym 3 hours later and it would start again. Lights are bright don't dim when trying to start. Had a guy I play basketball with jump it and got it home. Wouldn't start again this morning. Had issues last February and replaced battery, starter, solenoid and The positive cable to the starter. had to make it and use existing cable that goes to solenoid since Ford made part obsolete. It is the original alternator that will be replaced next. Ant recommendations on brand? Time constraints limit me to NAPA, Advance and Autozone.

 

Wow... just had the same problem yesterday. Mine is my own fault though. My alt went bad last month and i used a kit to rebuild it but the internals of the alt were to far gon i should have just replaced it. The brushes had burnt off and killed everything. Im going to napa today to grab a new alt. Lifetime warranty on it so you cant go wrong. The old alt was still working but not charging enough to keep the battery topped up and just drained the batt slowly over the last month. What a **** of to wake up in teh morning and be late for work cuz the truck wont start...LOL... i have always used napa parts and always had great luck with them

 

I've got a possible solution that will not only aggravate you, it will make you ask yourself the same question I asked myself when I dealt with an identical issue. "Why the **** would ANY engineer design something like this?"

Down ON the starter there is a small red wire with a female 1/4" spade connector. It is NOT insulated. It is exposed to the elements. It attaches to a separate relay on the starter. It also gets full of crud, loses conductivity, and works loose over time. Its a PITA to reach especially when its cold and wet. It WILL cause the very symptoms you are describing IF the connection it makes gets too weak.

The solution is to remove the non-insulated connector and replace it with an insulated one and fill it with dielectric grease before reconnecting it.

I would explain how I happened upon this information if I could do so without admitting to doing something incredibly stupid in a moment of utter frustration because I had chased this problem for three months. My mechanic even thought I was losing it because it was intermittent enough that it "Never did it for him".

Now I cannot say this is definitely the problem you are dealing with but it certainly sounds quite familiar.

 

Hopfully you don't run into the same problem i didn with my alternator. After trips to 3 difrent parts stores and ford i found out that the original alternator was discontinued. The only one available was clocked the wrong way. So back to napa grabed a alt went home and clocked it the right way. tigtening up the screws on the alt and snapped off one of the ears. Went back to napa looked over all the alt's and found that most of them the ears were cracked on them gabbed another one and got everything to work... Sorta pissed me of that ford would not have one of their tecks clock one for me. Woulda taken their teck a min to do it... o well they lost the sale

 

Everything tests good: battery, alternator, starter. I remember that damn wire last year when I replaced the starter. Mine had a red plastic cover taht went on the two studs to help protect from the elements. As I recall the plastic cover is in the console because it would not go back on the new starter and that spade broke off and I replaced it and the wire. Maybe it is corroded and needs cleaned. I will check that next!

 

Don't mean to sound stupid but what do you mean they are clocked the wrong way?

 

If you look at the alternator itself as a clock face the relative positions of the electrical connections and the mounting tabs can be shifted by disassembling the unit and reassembling it with the castings rotated to different positions. Manufacturers will do this from time to time. It's most often done to facilitate the use of essentially the same alternator with different engines and different car models. By re-clocking the castings before reassembly, the alternator will fit different mountings. For example a Bronco and a Mustang may use the same alternator but the way it mounts in one vehicle may not work in another. By re-clocking the unit Ford was able to essentially use the same component by changing the relative position of the mountings and/or the electrical connections.

 

Thanks couldent have said it better myself

 

Ordered a new Negative cable found through my Mustang Parts Guy Kevin Casey from Clevenger Ford at Joe Machens Ford in Missouri. Ship to me for $27. Went to change it on Friday since it was the only day without rain or snow and temp above 50. I failed miserably it got dark on me and temp started to drop. I couldn't find where to take it loose from the block laying on my back on the street. I can feel the frame tab bolt but where is the bolt to the block? Plus I found info on another site suggesting checking all the grounds and the 92-96 Broncos have ten!!

A. Starter mounting bolt
B. Right front of Engine compartment near the battery
C. Lower left front of engine
D. Right front of engine compartment on upper radiator support.
E. Left front of engine compartment Upper radiator support
F. Bottom of cowl panel
G. Rear of left fender apron
H. Behind bottom of right cowl panel
I. Left rear corner of cargo area near rear lamp assembly
J. Under center rear of vehicle on rear cross member.

 

anouther thing to check is on those days that it wont start there might be possible that the ignition switch is actually not sending power the the starter. when it doesnt start for you one day take a skrew driver and try jumping the soleniod on the passanger fender. if it starts you most likely have an ignition switch problem. if it still doesnt start with jumping the soleniod still then you might want to see if you have a factory installed alarm system and i had one and it started when it wanted to in my 95 bronco.

 

One thing i did on my toyota when i was having grounding problems. I took off all the factory grounds and made new ones out of car audio power cable. I ran all new cables and put them n one common location on the frame. That way if i ended up having troubles again i didnt have to climb all over to clean up grounds.

 

sounds like the power from the battery cannot get through to the cables.when you are getting jumped the power is coming from the outside of the terminals, as where when you are using the trucks battery power it is coming from the inside of the terminals, often corrosion willbuild up between the battery post and the terminal itself, not allowing current to flow through.

 

my similar dilemna has me pulling my hair and i need more help. i began several weeks ago with a dead battery and couldnt even jump it so first thing i replaced the battery which allowed me to start up my bronco and get home. over the next few days the starting was slowly degrading and i had my parts store guy check the system for me and it indicated a bad diode in the alternator so i replaced the alternator, but the ampmeter dives for zero when i turn off the ignition, indicating a drain somewhere. i found one connection at the solenoid with open insulation and corrosion, which i replaced also the solenoid, but the ampmeter still indicates a drain and after checking and verifying the starter, i dont know what to look for next. any ideas?