I just bought a 89 F-150. At first, sometimes when I would start it, it would seem like the battery was dead and would need to jump it to get it started. Even if it did start on its own, it would be a very sluggish start like the battery was low. I had the starter, alternator, battery tested and all came back ok. I was wondering if a simple tune up may do the trick, or if anyone knows of any other ideas. The guy said he put new plugs in it, but haven't had the time to check them out to see if he gapped them rights or even changed them. Thanks!!

 

clean all your connections good! if you have a loose or corroded connection to the battery or starter you won't been sending enough power to the starter to turn it over. Try swapping your battery out with another one... Sometimes those tests can be missleading b/c you could have one bad cell in the battery which might show as good battery on some testers (same problem i had with my nighthawk this year tested good but wasn't putting out enough amps to start it).

Does it trun over fast or does the engine sound like a slow raaa raaaa raaaaaa...? when it's started does it run good at idle or sound like it's struggling? It sounds to me like you are having problems getting it to trun over??? If that is the case your looking at battery... if it turns over nice and won't start you need to look at your spark plugs, cap, rotor, wires and starter.

 

it is a slow ra ra raaaa. thats what they told me at one of the auto parts stores, but sometimes i have a hard time believing them. The one guy told me to adjust my advance timing, but didnt want to mess it up worse. Another told me it could be fuel injectors. I know its not fuel injectors though. I was thinking it was the cap, rotor, etc. Thanks for the ideas everyone!! let me know of anymore

 

Any sign of fuel in the oil, as in lots of fuel?

 

Try swapping the battery with another one if you have it.....I had a problem similar to this last year, and the battery tested fine at 2 stores, but I kept having the problem......I replaced the starter, solenoid, alternator, and spent a good couple hours cleaning EVERY single connection and putting it all back together and still had the same problem.. Finally took it the battery to another store and had them test it on their big tester, turned out the batter had 2 dead cells in it. It put out enough volts and amps to keep everything going, but not to turn the starter. Swapped the batt out and haven't had a problem since. (and got my money back for all the unneeded new parts!)

Oh yeah, and injectors/timing/cap/rotor/etc. isn't going to cause the engine to turn over slowly......it'll keep it from firing and running properly, but shouldn't have anything to do with how fast the motor turns over

 

i will definatly start with the battery then! Cheaper would be better. And by the way like your truck!

 

Thanks she's a good ol' girl to me, and she'll be a sweet all terrain ride when she's done

 

danr1,
I haven;t noticed any fuel in the oil. when i bought it, the oil level was actually down a little but. But I just changed the oil so I should be able to notice.

 

sorry my thoughts were running together in my previous post. I didn't want to imply the speed of the trun over had anything to do with the ignition and spark. The cap rotor, plugs and wires are all good maintence items to replace if they are worn out. The slow turn over item i asked about was supposed to determine if it was the power supply... ie battery...

Anyway go get a new battery!