Odd starter and alarm coincidence...

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Jul 19, 2004 | 08:43 PM

scion5

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Odd starter and alarm coincidence...

I have a 1992 f150 with 4.9 inline six. Truck has been running fine...then I let her sit about a week....tried to use my remote beeper to disable alarm but it would not work. My 2nd beeper failed to work also. Had to disconnect fuse to get alarm to stop. This is headache enough but second problem started at same time....when I turn ignition switch, starter kicks over for about half second then stops...if I hold ignition switch on it will kick in again, (but this grinds flywheel), so I immediately turn it off and back on it engine kicks on right away. It has not gotten worse for several days. I checked battery voltage...about 11.5 when off...about 14.5 when running. Any ideas for either problem appreciated or whether there is a connection between them...thanks

Last edited by scion5; Jul 19, 2004 at 08:45 PM.

Jul 19, 2004 | 09:03 PM

Franklin2

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From: Virginia

Is this some sort of aftermarket alarm system? If it's tied into the starter and the run circuit, I would not know where to begin to look except to take the alarm system completely out of the start/run circuit to verify if the alarm is the problem.

Jul 19, 2004 | 09:38 PM

HomerWinzlow

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From: Lawton, Oklahoma

I would have the battery tested. It could be that it has a bad cell and voltage drops enough that it triggers the alarm when surface charge reaches sufficient voltage to act like a cable has been removed and then reconnected, a typical response from an aftermarket alarm. If the battery tests bad replace it and then do a draw test to ensure it isnt being drained from a voltage regulator or other source. If all checks out good then reinstall the alarm fuse and test it all out. Then if the problem persists you should bypass the alarm starter interupt and do starter system diagnostics.

Jul 19, 2004 | 10:50 PM

scion5

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Thanx for responses...

franklin2 and HomerWinzlow...will try Homer's advice and post results...thanx

Jul 20, 2004 | 01:11 AM

kinnja

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Hi,

HTH, several years ago, my parents had a problem with their Dodge not starting. The car had an alarm, and nobody could find anything wrong with it.

Finally, one mechanic figured out that even though the battery tested out as good, the problem was in fact the battery. Apparently, this car with this alarm system needed a real good, real healthy battery in order to work right.

BTW, I have no idea about the brand or model of the alarm system, or the year of the car.

If you can please post a follow up when you fix it though.

Jul 21, 2004 | 12:50 AM

scion5

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Well, I bought new battery....but alarm and starter symtoms still exist. I cleaned tarnish off wire leads to battery...but nothing changed. Had "auto electrical" business look at truck..he suggested that it "sounded like starter". My alarm does not have starter kill enabled (pretty sure, anyway, been a long time since alarm installation) so connection between starter and alarm is puzzling. I had new trans put in several months ago, and they also installed new safety neutral switch...maybe loose wire or defective switch? only other thing I have done is installed KN OEM replacement air filter and two Tornado air boosters a few days prior to problems...but had no immediate problems after install, so don't think I screwed any thing up there. So its still confusing.

Jul 21, 2004 | 09:00 AM

Franklin2

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From: Virginia

As an experiment:

MAKE SURE THE TRUCK IS IN PARK OR NEUTRAL. Take a small piece of wire and jump #3 to #5 in the above diagram. Everytime you jump these terminals, the truck should crank. If you have the ignition key in run, the truck will probably start.

See how it acts doing it this way. If it straightens out, then you must have a problem with the red/blue wire circuit. This should be the color of the wire on #5 on the starter relay.

This red/blue circuit begins at the ignition switch. It gets voltage when you spring the switch to start. Problems here could be a bad ignition switch or bad mechanical linkage in the column that activates the switch.

After this, the red/blue heads down to the neutral safety switch(or clutch pedal switch if a manual tranny).

From there it goes to location #5 on the starter solenoid.

The wild card here is does the alarm have any wires spliced in this circuit? By using the jumper above, you can start trying to eliminate the problem source. If it still acts up with the jumper, then you may have a problem with the cables or the starter.