After saying the truck was starting well, I ran in to another problem.
Background:
1999 F350, 245,000 miles 7.3L 6Spd Manual, Turbo(stock).
Fresh Rotella 5W40 (Maine Winter)
Glow Plugs ohm properly.
New Batteries, starter relay (on fender).
New Glow plug relay.
Problem:
Truck starts fine when it is cold. (to about 10 below - mild winter this year).
Restarting after a short trip will not work if I have my foot on the brake.
This almost makes sense, since the power steering pump runs the power brakes.

My next move was going to be to drop the starter and have it tested, but I'm wondering if I am going off track here and should be looking at something else.

Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to FTE!!!I think that is the smart thing to do.Starter windings/bendix may be getting weak and when it heats up it does not want to engage.Have it tested and let us know.

 

sounds like you are going the right direction,

Just to clarify; when you try to start the truck after a short trip it will not start or it will not crank?

you say it will not start if you have your foot on the brake, does it start if you don't have your foot on the brake?

how long do you have to let it sit before it will restart?

just wondering

 

After a short trip, it will crank. I think that I got nervous and pushed the brake pedal harder, and it slowed the engine down (didn't make the connection at first).
Without my foot on the brake (take out my frustration on the floorboards instead), it slows quickly - battery is under 8 volts, and it finally kicks, starts and runs fine.
I was wondering why it did not seem to be responding to jumper cables until I realized this. Now that I know it, I don't have to let it sit at all.
Dealer was saying that the starter would just "click" if it was bad, it wouldn't turn over. However, that would be if the solenoid in the starter or the brushes were bad. Bearings or windings would give me a symptom like this. Doesn't really matter, though- starter is an assembly and I am not sure that replacing parts of it would help after 200,000 miles.

 

Uhhh, I think I missed something. Are you saying your starter has 200k miles on it? I'd have it bronzed and mounted.

 

I am having a starting issue as well and I am thinking it is the starter. Both batteries are relatively new as is the alternator. Luckily for me it "broke down" at Auto Zone (I was getting some lugnuts for my Samurai). They tested the batteries, I cleaned the hell out of the posts/terminals and nothing changed. When I would put the key in ACC, it would show full voltage but when I went to crank it, it would drop to something like 4-6 volts maybe (hard to tell on our gauges). An off-duty firefighter pulled up in his diesel so I asked if he wouldn't mind "trying" to jump mine. Tried with similar results.

He offered to take me home so I got home and called my neighbor (Ford mechanic) to get his advice. He said it sounded like the starter and that maybe the starter was "heat locked"......not sure if that was the term he used, I have already forgotten. So when he gets home in about 20 minutes, we are going to run up there and try and see if it cooled down enough to start. If not, I guess we will replace the starter in the parking lot.

 

I've only heard the "heat locked" term used in fuel systems (also called vapor lock). Actually makes a lot of sense - the smaller a motor they use, the more it heats up doing it's job - something like this may only be able to be cranked for a minute, and then need to cool down for fifteen.
As far as the mileage, the truck has 245,000 on it. Starter certainly isn't new - might or might not be original - I just don't know. I know very little about the former owner except that his job involved extreme amounts of highway driving. I'm just saying it "<"could">" be an old starter.
What I was looking for here was anything else that would need to be looked at before condemning a piece that is going to cost over $300 (Brake lights, power steering pump, or something that I can't even imagine).

I think I am also looking for recommendations - I have in my head that the factory starter is decent, but a bit expensive. Auto Zone is where I would go to have it tested, and the more I think about it, I might just skip it. I've watched them test them, and the way the guy did it would just be a waste of time - I not only wouldn't be convinced, but I have no intention of buying their rebuilt starter anyway.

Are the aftermarket (high performance) starters worth anything?

 

Finally got it fixed -
It was the starter.
Removed it and broke one of the terminals.
Took to AutoZone - their test showed that it was good.
Bought a new one, put it in, and it cranks very fast now.
So much for bronzing the starter - they took it as a core.