EMD_DRIVER
Say what?!?!
Thursday morning, I went to fire the beast up to go to work. Temp was 53 degrees and I know my return lines are letting the fuel drain back towards the tank, due to air leaking in (Will be fixed, next paycheck).
After about 15 minutes of 15 second cranking, with 1-2 minute cooling pauses.. Batteries were dead. I tried jump-starting it with my Explorer, but couldn't get it to crank fast enough for it to start. Had to drive my Explorer to work, for the first time in 5 weeks ... That evening, I looked for possible causes of the thing not wanting to crank and found that the positive battery terminal connector had a lot of corrosion, in the wire leading into it. Took it apart and cleaned the end of the wire really good, as well as where it seats into the connector itself. I then put both batteries on chargers for the night.
Next morning, I had a little trouble starting it, but it did start. After work yesterday, the batteries were almost dead again. Jump starting it did work, but just barely. Put the batteries back on chargers, again last night.
This morning, it was slow-starting again. I had some errands to run, so I didn't get a chance to do any troubleshooting until this evening.
I disconnected both batteries and put them on charge. I wanted to see how dead they really were. Both batteries took a charge really quickly.. Since the thing was having trouble cranking again today, I figured they were cooked. After charging them, I had 13.28 volts on the passenger side and 13.02 on the driver's side.
There's a solenoid mounted to the right fender, that has a positive wire from the battery connected to it. I unhooked the positive wire and all the others on that terminal, to start looking for a possible short. With the positive terminal of the passenger side battery connected, I ran a test light lead from the negative terminal of the same battery to each of the disconnected wires.
None of them made the light come on, nor did they register any voltage on my volt meter. When I tried the test light on the black wire, which is on the opposite solenoid terminal, it flashed. The black wire is piggy-backed with the large red cable, leading to the starter. I put the volt meter on that wire and got 12.56 volts. With the volt meter still there, I tried the test light again. It flashed again and the volt meter dropped to zero, then slowly rose back to 12.56 volts.
My best un-educated guess, is that there is a problem with the starter mounted solenoid. With everything else on the vehicle eliminated, That's all that is left.
If there's anything else I can do, please let me know. If it is the starter mounted solenoid, is there any way to fix it, without buying a new starter?
Thanks in advance,
Gary
After about 15 minutes of 15 second cranking, with 1-2 minute cooling pauses.. Batteries were dead. I tried jump-starting it with my Explorer, but couldn't get it to crank fast enough for it to start. Had to drive my Explorer to work, for the first time in 5 weeks ... That evening, I looked for possible causes of the thing not wanting to crank and found that the positive battery terminal connector had a lot of corrosion, in the wire leading into it. Took it apart and cleaned the end of the wire really good, as well as where it seats into the connector itself. I then put both batteries on chargers for the night.
Next morning, I had a little trouble starting it, but it did start. After work yesterday, the batteries were almost dead again. Jump starting it did work, but just barely. Put the batteries back on chargers, again last night.
This morning, it was slow-starting again. I had some errands to run, so I didn't get a chance to do any troubleshooting until this evening.
I disconnected both batteries and put them on charge. I wanted to see how dead they really were. Both batteries took a charge really quickly.. Since the thing was having trouble cranking again today, I figured they were cooked. After charging them, I had 13.28 volts on the passenger side and 13.02 on the driver's side.
There's a solenoid mounted to the right fender, that has a positive wire from the battery connected to it. I unhooked the positive wire and all the others on that terminal, to start looking for a possible short. With the positive terminal of the passenger side battery connected, I ran a test light lead from the negative terminal of the same battery to each of the disconnected wires.
None of them made the light come on, nor did they register any voltage on my volt meter. When I tried the test light on the black wire, which is on the opposite solenoid terminal, it flashed. The black wire is piggy-backed with the large red cable, leading to the starter. I put the volt meter on that wire and got 12.56 volts. With the volt meter still there, I tried the test light again. It flashed again and the volt meter dropped to zero, then slowly rose back to 12.56 volts.
My best un-educated guess, is that there is a problem with the starter mounted solenoid. With everything else on the vehicle eliminated, That's all that is left.
If there's anything else I can do, please let me know. If it is the starter mounted solenoid, is there any way to fix it, without buying a new starter?
Thanks in advance,
Gary