Had the truck towed home and I'm charging my spare battery as we speak. Maybe the truck and I just needed a day off

 

keep us posted

 

The good news is that a new battery was able to get a couple turns from the starter. The tach moved a little and I smiled a little. The bad news is that's about it. Well, I also have the ability to turn headlights on after I try to start so I don't have a total electric meltdown on my hands!
I tested for continuity to the starter and it was good. Tested for continuity on the positive battery cable and it was good. The ground on the solenoid is bright n shiny.

Any other ideas where to look?

 

Is this a "New" battery, or the spare one you were charging mentioned in the post above?

If everything was turning over and it stopped I'd still say you don't have enough juice especially if this was an old battery that you charged up. If you don't want to buy a new one to test it, pull one out of a newer vehicle that you know is in good shape.

 

Is this a "New" battery, or the spare one you were charging mentioned in the post above?

If everything was turning over and it stopped I'd still say you don't have enough juice especially if this was an old battery that you charged up. If you don't want to buy a new one to test it, pull one out of a newer vehicle that you know is in good shape.

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer.

It's my spare. It read full on the charger but I don't know electricity so maybe a new battery in order.
Would jumping the battery give me enough juice or is a new battery a necessity for that to work too?

 

Reading Full can be misleading, the only way to find out if a battery is any good is to have it load tested at an autoparts store. You could jump the battery, but that again puts more variables into the equation, is the connection good? are the cables junk? To eliminate the battery as a problem you need to be 100% sure the battery that you are trying is good, which it sounds like for sure the first one was not. The second one we're not so sure about since it produced a result the first one didn't.

 

man, if you were close to my area, i could give you a battery

 

Well just today at work another truck(all are Ford Rangers) wouldn't start. It had the exect problems OP has, radio/clock, dome lights ect work. Batt read 13V on it, BUT when you tried to start it went to 0V. We jumped it and got it running and the alt output was 14.2V. then the dipsitck(driver) turned off the truck and it went back to the no power problem. We took the battery out of the spare truck and sent him on his way.

With the 2nd battery trying to start the engine, sounds like it needs a good charge or its bad the same way as the other battery. It best like the others have said, is to use a known good battery and go from there.




Now this gets intresting, after getting the spare truck jumped and took it over the "rip off" repair shop, and told them it just needs a battery, they wanted to replace the alternator,ecu and something else for a tune of $900!!! Bad thing is, the stupid company had it fixed..... Only needed a $40 battery! Next time I see that truck I'm going to see if all those parts were replaced!(manager just called me while responding to the forum) He wanted my thoughs on it and also though the rip offs were putting needless parts in, upper managment had it fixed...)

 

I took both batteries, my new starter and my alternator into the parts store to have them tested. New starter still works. One of the batteries is good. Alternator was shot.
Installed the new alternator, the good battery and everything else and same story. I tried jumping it off with my roommates car. Nothing.
I'm tired and now I'm out of beer.

 

Don't get discouraged. It might not seem like it, but you are making progress. Eliminating possible sources of the problem is a good thing. Every time you eliminate one you are one step closer to the solution.


But now I think it's probably time to follow Dan's advice. I don't see anything that you haven't already replaced or tested.

Battery cables collect moisture inside them and corrode over time. If they are corroded bad enough they will no longer carry enough current to turn the starter over.

Have you overheated it lately? Have you tried to turn the motor over by hand?

 

thats good thinking, andy......scarey, but good

 

I called someone who understands electricity slightly better than me and as he looked at the wiring diagram as I tested circuits.

I have power from the battery to the solenoid and it grounds well. Also, if I take a wire from the positive terminal and touch it to the S post on the solenoid (and thereby bypassing the solenoid) the starter tries to engage. So what he figured out after a half hr of testing was that all my connections are good from battery to starter it's just the stuff that activates the solenoid that's suspect.
So in the morning when I can see what I'm looking at I'll test continuity on my red/blue wire on my S post. Then I'll check my neutral safety switch and finally the wires going to the key.

 

when i get to that point, can you come over and check mine.......lol