keep a positive attitude while trying to get to the hard to reach negative cable. ;-)

 

Having some experience with Chevy's, a truck that starts great cold, but barely or not at all hot, sounds like starter/solenoid heat soak. Is your solenoid fender mounted or one of the starter motor mounted models?.........A missing heat shield will let the exhaust manifold COOK the solenoid/starter resulting in no start hot cond.

 

Hawaiian,
Do you have the same DuraSpark II ignition system that I do?

There should be one of 2 plugs on it that has one red and one white wire going to it.
The white wire should be powered only in the start position and tells the ignition box to retard the timing while the starter is engaged.
This eases the load while cranking and if it is not working properly may cause the symptoms you have.

Link: Duraspark II

Just something to check before you go out and buy a new starter that might not solve the problem.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forum!

 

Are these plugs a part of the distributor itself? I have two wires coming out of the distributor at the radiator side - one black with a red stripe, one black with a purple stripe. Perhaps they're on the backside of the distributor? (Dark outside, hard to see back there...)

 

No, they go to the ignition control box on the drivers side plastic fender well.
......Pics in the link I posted.

Does your '87 460 have a carburetor, or is it fuel injected?

 

Ah, yes. Please forgive my failure to check your link before I hit "reply".
Carburetor.
And after checking, yes, Duraspark.
Is this problematic? How can I diagnose it? More importantly, how can I treat it?

 

The DuraSpark II ignition is very robust and simple.

I meant to suggest that you check for 12V at the white wire in the plug while cranking.
If not, the spark won't retard and it will cause unnecessary load on the starter.
Especially when hot.

Edit: As suggested in the link for retrofitting the DSII you could run a wire from the "S" terminal on the starter solenoid to this white wire if you find no power there while cranking.
I don't know if your harness has been hacked or may be shorted out.

If you do find that there is 12V coming from the harness while cranking then I would agree that your best course of action is to replace the starter

 

Great, thanks! I'll give that a try in the morning.

 

Old93, to answer your question, my solenoid is on the fender. My manifold heat shields are in place, or so it seems. Don't have anything to reference.

I've seen starter heat shields at summit or jegs, or maybe it was Napa, who knows. Has anyone used those, and is there any drawback?

Thermo-Tec 14150 - Thermo-Tec Starter Heat Shields - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

A close fitting set of headers might make your starter too hot but with stock manifolds I have not found it an issue in over 300k miles.

Don't forget to check your timing as BRay09 suggested.

 

Hi Hawaiin21,
Day 1 here on the forum....and we need help..... I am having the same exact problem with my '89 fuel injected F-150 5.0L. So far we have good alternator, good battery. Changed Fender mounted solenoid, spark plugs, starter...and repaired crack in exhaust manifold.
Starter removal was easy, but we suggest some ratcheting wrenches, there wasn't much room for ratchet/sockets. You can then have your starter tested at your auto parts store....
Did you try negative cables yet??? I'm going to try tomorrow. I've read all suggestions...if that doesn't do it..its gotta be timing I guess. Mine starts fine cold....idles fine...and runs fine...its just the hot start that I can't count on ( J writing ), and I don't want to send (W) up into the mountains with our mutts to get stranded.

Thanks for any help. We bought this truck for $1100.00 on CL and want the underside to be perfect, and let whatever happens to the body happen.... if I had hair, I'd pull it out...!!!

 

My old Bronco did this, and it turned out to be a TFI module.

Little doohickey on the distributor. They make a special tool for it at any hardware store but I had to pull the dizzy to get it to it. You cold prolly twist the dizzy wherever and it do it too. Be sure you mark the dizzy so you dont **** with timing.

 

This is a nearly 4 year old thread. Better off to start a new one.

Anyways, I'd be willing to bet your timing is to far advanced.

 

And pull the codes on it. May have a bad ECT sensor

 

That should show how frustrated I am with this truck.....I didn't even look at the year of the thread.......thanks guys...... I'll try to keep checking things off.....