I've got an 85 f-150 with the 302 and 4spd. Ever since I got the truck running, It would start easily till it was warmed up. Once it was warmed up it was a crap shoot as to if it would start back up. It would act like the battery had been drained. After a couple of tries (sometimes pop the hood and shake the wires around a lil) It would start right up and run....Sometimes when it starts it wont rev past 2800 and accelerate slowly acting making it feel as if the brakes were locked. Most the time I could shut it down wait a few second fire it back up and it would run great! Now here's the problem ....the other day I ran up to the gas station and turned the truck off I came out and it acted like the battery died. I used their jump box and it fired right up. I get the truck home and park it...battery went totally dead....Today I hooked up the jumper cables and let it take a full charge from my car. (let it set there for almost an hour with out trying to start it) All I get is a clunk (from the starter engaging) and thats it no turn over nothing .....the rest of the eletric seems to work fine till I try to start it and it all goes out but withing a few seconds all eletric works again....

Could it be that my 1150 cca battery took a dump?? But if it did I should have gotten something more when I tried to jump start it....

 

Make sure all the battery connections are shiny clean inside.

Dan.

 

You may have a intermittent dead cell in the battery also. If you have another one you could swap in, you could see if the problem goes away.

 

Most jumper cables wont carry enough current to crank a big engine, but it should have charged the battery in that amount of time, If you have a voltmeter you can run some checks yourself. If not take the battery to a parts/battery store that can test it for you