New altenator, new battery - car's working great. Yesterday, car won't start. Replaced starter selinoid, and voltage regulator. Did a quick test with a circuit tester, grounded to battery, had buddy turn key to 'start' and touched the starter side of the selinoid (sp?) to find there was no voltage going to the starter. Any ideas?
Try looking at the negative side of battery...bad terminal or cable. Also, you may have gotton a bad switch out of the box. I got a bad one from Advance like that, and it worked fine with a new switch. Let us know, Earl
Ok, I'll look into the negative side... I just replaced the starter like 5 minutes ago, still same problem!
well, now I'm at a bit of a loss... new 4ga grounding strap, from neg terminal to the block, and still nothing. I don't quite understand just how this Ford starting system works. The hot side seems to go to the solenoid, and directly across it, the wire that goes to the starter is grounded, not hot! If I hook my voltage tester to the neg terminal, nothing happens, but if I hook it to the hot terminal, and touch the wire to the starter, it glows brightly. Shouldn't the hot wire be isolated from the rest of the starter that is grounded? OR am I missing something here?
The starter solenoid has 2 big terminals and 2 small ones. One of the big terminals hooks directly to the battery and the other to the starter. The smallest terminal closest to the battery pole is your start signal. When you turn the key to the start position, you should have 12 volts to ground at this small terminal. Make sure your solenoid is well grounded. Basically in this position, the solenoid shorts the 2 big poles together. Clean the metal where the solenoid bolts to the frame. If your negitive battery cable does not have a ground directly to the base of the voltage regulator, make one. Other wise your drivetrain is mounted on rubber and grounds are hard to come by when it has to go through the motor block. Anyway, if the soleniod is well grounded and you get 12v at this terminal in the start position, then the solenoid is faulty. You can also remove this wire and short this terminal to the battery terminal to check the solenoid. It should run the starter when you do this. If your not getting the 12v in the start position, your problem is in the ignition switch or associated wiring. The second small terminal nearest the starter terminal supplies 12v to the coil while in the start position.
I jumped the positive terminal to the little S terminal - I just got a buzzing sound, no starter turning. I'll check the wiring, but this just makes no sense. With the key off, there is no voltage to the S terminal. With the key in start, there is power there, but the bulb isn't as bright as when I touch the battery itself.
ok, the buzzing/clicking is coming from the solenoid itself. What gives? Is that wire that runs from the starter to the solenoid supposed to have ground, or no?
The solenoid gets its ground through the mounting tabs into the sheet metal of the car. From the factory, the ground cable went from the battery terminal, over to the base of the voltage regulator where a tap off tab was bolted to the base of the Voltage regulator, than on to the block. Most replacement battery cables do not have this tab so the ground to the frame gets elimated when replaced. If everything is new and tight, there is usually a ground wire from the motor to the firewall. However, usually over the years this dissapears too. That makes poor grounding to the frame. You either have a poor ground to your solenoid or a bad solenoid.
Make sure your starter solenoid is not mounted up side down. (i had this goofy thing happen to me ) It can make things confusing to the unaware. The starter should have one heavy gauge cable that goes directly to the solenoid with NO ground. It is a "hot" wire carrying voltage to the starter.
Which one is grounded? None of the wires in the jpg i posted should be grounded to a negative source.! The only one grouned is the negative batt. termanal.
I spoke to doward on the phone last night and it sounded like he got a bad started from the parts store. When you install all new parts and it still dont work, it can be a real head scratcher.
