startin=g problem..please help!

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Sep 5, 2009 | 04:28 PM

punksnoted

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starting problem..please help!

i have an 87 f150..302...auto trans. the trauck had the problem of the starter not disengaging when the truck started. no matter what you do, it would just keep starting. so i bought a relay. changed it and the starter because the starter burned up. turned the key and the relay just sparked. so i put the old one in and its started up. about 4 days later my buddy was driving it and he went to start it...and it did it again. well this time he had to get outta where he was parked so with the engine running and the starter motor engaged... he drove it about 100 feet. then it just died. so i put a new starter in again and a relay. now when i go to start it it clicks and everything goes dead. no power to anything. if i disconnect the battery cable for about 10 seconds, when i reconnect it i have power again....until i try to start it and then all power is lost once again. any ideas?

Sep 5, 2009 | 05:37 PM

subford

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From: Easton,Ks

Bad battery cables.
The ends got hot and now they are bad.

Sep 5, 2009 | 06:03 PM

punksnoted

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well that's what i thought. but i checked them and they seem pretty good. i checked for continuity and resistance....think it could be anything else like a fusible link somewhere or something?

Sep 5, 2009 | 06:30 PM

subford

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From: Easton,Ks

No I do not.
If a fusible link were bad you would not get power back by taking the cables off and on.

Sep 5, 2009 | 07:46 PM

punksnoted

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ah.. good point. so you think i should just go ahead and change em anyways? (battery cables)

Sep 5, 2009 | 09:55 PM

deeznuts822

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From: ohio

And grab up a napa or ford starter relay. The autozoners will stick as u said. a few jabs with a hammer usually will get em unstuck

Sep 6, 2009 | 12:27 AM

punksnoted

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yea. i know. they are garbage. but i do have a napa one in there now. I used to manage a parts store. its amazing how many of them right out of the box are total crap.

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Sep 7, 2009 | 01:50 PM

punksnoted

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Ok. so after a couple days of wanting to strap some c4 to the bottom of this thing, i went back to it (it was sitting in a parking lot) and noticed that the solenoid(relay) was connected backwards. (starter cable was on the front post etc) so, i swapped the cables and went to start it and it started but once again it wouldn't disengage. Had to use the old pull the battery cable trick. so just for the helluvit i put the old relay back on and voila, it started right up. So i got it home and remembered that i had a new relay that i bought a while back... but i didnt remember where i got it from. so i hooked it up. when i went to start the truck, my wife noticed a spark coming somewhere from the drivers side fender-well and it made this weird whirring noise while trying to start it. but it didnt crank. i then decided that the relay was sitting on my shelf because i bought it from knects or something. so i put the old on BACK on again and now when i try to start it, it sounds like the battery is dead. checked it and its good. threw a fully charged jump box on it...didnt change one bit....any ideas...? Please...??