Please Help Me Troubleshoot My Starting Problem...

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Jan 6, 2010 | 09:27 PM

rutang

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Senior User

Joined: May 2005

Posts: 155

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From: Willamette Valley

Please Help Me Troubleshoot My Starting Problem...

Hi, I have a 1992 Ford Ranger XLT 2.9L V6 and its a manual 5 speed. Anyways it has been a great running little truck but the last few nights I noticed a little hesitation when starting it up... almost like the battery was going dead. Well, this morning it wouldn't start... so I jumped it with my wife's car and it went from trying to jump to just a click and would not take a charge. Anyways the click is coming from the starter relay, to make a long story short, I put a brand new battery in it and a new starter relay and it is still making a clicking noise in the relay when I turn it over. Lights, radio and everything is good just will not turn over at all... just the clicking noise. I need to fix this asap so any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Rusty

Jan 7, 2010 | 10:06 AM

Rangerman Stan

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Joined: Feb 2006

Posts: 681

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From: SE Michigan

From your description it sounds like everything is trying to work, right down to the solenoid. So check all the ground straps or cables going to the battery from the engine and from the body to the engine. Make sure all the connections are clean and tight and that the wire going to the connection is all there and not hanging on by just a couple of wire strands. If you see corrosion around the connections, then it needs to be removed from all the metal parts. Take a look at all the ground wires where the insulation ends on the cables and make sure no corrosion is inside the cable covering. Make sure the positive wire from the battery to the solenoid and from the solenoid to the starter is in good condition too. If you see the corrosion around a connection point, you need to take it apart to remove all of the corrosion. I grows in between parts that are bolted together or plugged in and gives a bad connection. It also sounds like it could be the starter not wanting to spin. Once in a while they will develop a dead spot or just go bad and need to be changed. You could take it off and take it to a parts store for a test to see if it's good. Most places don't charge for this test. See what you can do and let us know how it goes.

Jan 7, 2010 | 11:35 AM

87 XLT

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Joined: Oct 2003

Posts: 4,516

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From: SoCal

Like Rangerman Stan sez you might have a bad cable.

When I had the same problem with my 87 about 5 years ago i did the following VERY simple test to find the bad cable:

I used one side from a set of jumper cables & jumped from the positive post of the battery to the starter relay & no joy, it still would'nt crank.

But when I jumped from the negative battery post to the engine block & it fired right up I knew that the negative cable was shot.

I did'nt want to bother replacing the entire cable so I cut the last 6 inches off of the cable & inserted it into a 6 inch pig tail (7 bucks from Kragen) & problem solved.

I now have a 23 year old cable connected to a 5 year old pig tail & no more problems.

BTW, b4 working on anything electrical it's always a good idea to take a quick look at the circuit wiring diagram so you can understand how the circuit works.

In this case that would be the start circuit wiring diagram for a 92 Ranger.