Damnit....You may call me the torque master now....

[Cruiseomatic]

After so long of using bad/old/salvage cables, wrong size, plain junk, even jumper cables!
And after almost a year now, I finally realized that you can't pull the same "just to get by" techniques on diesels as you can gassers.
So I decided to start spending more and using the right equipment to get this truck done. I really didn't want to sink alot just to get it started but I am..Hope I'm not wrong. Some of you may remember when I used jumpers to spin this engine over in a old YouTube video I made.

So, I bought a POS cable from oreilly's Yesterday. Just got it on about 30 minutes ago. When I was bolting it to the starter solenoid, It was almost ready then it happened....I SPUN THE DAMN THING! Thats right. I must of applied enough torque that I spun the solenoid connection....Being hopeful, I tried to crank anyway. Nope. Its dead. So now I have to go get it rebuilt...Not really a bad thing though. It was cranking slow to start with. For a while, I had a decent POS cable on it and a good ground. I know this because I had just taken a 1000CA motorcraft battery off the charger, quickly threw it on and hit it. Voltage was up around 15 or 16 according to VOM. Volt gauge on dash is a damn liar. I hit the key and it nearly spun out of the truck. Waited an hour and back to normal again.

Theres a video on here where someone did a compare of a bad starter to a good one. Can't find it now. Either way, I get the right crap and now I have to wait to get this one rebuilt..... And I just blew my 2 week budget. Now I have to wait until this Thursday to do anything.
At this rate, It'll be next year before it runs.

Moral of the story is, When Installing new cables on a 6.9/7.3 starter. Do it with the starter out of the truck and hold that plastic crap to keep from spinning it like a top.
What idiot came up with that design? " Hey, Lets use plastic to hold high amprage cables that are going to be in a very dirty environment and require lots of torque to keep good connection for max amp draw. Who cares if it breaks, Not our problem. And lets put it in a hard to reach place."

 

[IDIoit]

one of the reasons I got a powermaster starter.
aluminum casing.
the pos and trigger are very accessible.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

welcome to old idi trucks.this is only the beginning.your only messing with the tip of a giant iceberg.just wait until you get to the giant behemoth of repairs,just waiting for you.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

welcome to old idi trucks.this is only the beginning.your only messing with the tip of a giant iceberg.just wait until you get to the giant behemoth of repairs,just waiting for you.

Tell me about it.....I already have a feeling this engine is worn and tired I just don't know it yet....

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

Don't get a DB electrical, the "New" one i got from them had a dead spot in it. The New from NAPA worked well but didnt look any higher quality.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

Lol, And I was reading a forum post about OSGR and they kept mentioning DB in it. Local places like autozone and oreillys are out of the question. Nothing but junk there really. Especially autozone! Napa I don't have much experience with but they are proud of there stuff.... I've been reading how good Mitsu OSGR are and looking for one of those but need a reputable place to get it from...Reputable and Reasonable. This isn't a DD currently and just trying to see if she'll run and if so how good. But, If she does, then the starter obviously stays on so its a bit of a conflict. Spend big money for good stuff that'll last years or cheap out and get something that might last a year on a engine I don't know runs but if so don't want to spend more on a good one.....It never ends....

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

autozone remans the factory units.i get mine there.i start my trucks over and over and over again,all day long (well,chip truck anyway.log truck probably only gets 10-15 starts per day when i use id guess) they hold up well and don't cost me a dime to replace,due to their lifetime warranty.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Oh Boy, the rants and raves of your first post, ya just got initiated into the world of Diesels.

Now you MUST stay CALM and COOL working on these or you'll drive yourself crazy.

And for Gods sake, stay off of Utube for information. Here's the place for info. There's lots of ways to skin a cat.

 

[icanfixall]

U tube is intertaining but that is all its good for. I have seen guys telling you the best.. Easy way to remove an injection pump is by the gear cover. They go on to tell you "just mark the housing and gear"... Then you know where it goes when you install it... Nope. The vid showing this mark is not what I call fool proof. It was filthy and "IF" you wiped off the marks when cleaning up .. Well you are sure out of luck. another vid showed driving a longer bolt thru the housing to hold the gear in place. Still not fool proof but it is a better idea. My issue with this idea is you still can't be sure the gears are correctly aligned because you can't see them. Best you can do is assume they are correctly aligned because you think all went back together correctly. This is no place where an assumption is going to "get you home" idea. Do it once.. Do it right and be done with it. Same idea with purchasing cheap pats like cables, starters or injection pumps. You end up paying twice for the same good parts.

 

[cpdenton]

If it makes you feel any better, I did the exact same thing. Broke the positive terminal off the starter when I was installing the new cable. I did, however, have an extra starter I pulled off a junk engine ready to go. That top bolt is a booger, but it can be removed with the right combo of extensions and sockets.

 

[Cruiseomatic]

Oh Boy, the rants and raves of your first post, ya just got initiated into the world of Diesels.

Now you MUST stay CALM and COOL working on these or you'll drive yourself crazy.

And for Gods sake, stay off of Utube for information. Here's the place for info. There's lots of ways to skin a cat.

Not my first time fighting with diesels its when I own them and have to fork over the cash for them and its worse when its on a truck that has been abandoned for 8 or so years and the last owner was a firm lover in halfassing and zipties... I wish I had a spare starter on hand already.... That is an unexpected expense that just adds to this "build". For keeping time on the IP, I haven't pulled one in FOREVER...Since my Army days with the 6.5 but what I remember doing is we marked it BUT, We took a scribe and scribbled a line vertically on gear and housing and it was at least 1/8th inch so it couldn't be mistaken or hard to read.
And I'm staying calm but it sure is irritating when you fix one thing and break an expensive part fixing it. Add to, This is all on a budget. A tight one at that. And idi parts are still expensive for their age...And to me, $500 for an IP or $60 for an return kit given what it has is a bit much. And icanfixall, You're to right on cheap parts... But after everything I've went through on this truck, how much is wrong with it, and how expensive the parts are, It's enough to drive most people to scrap it instead but I'm still here aren't I? AND, I'm not halfassing or just butchering it up either like I've seen most guys do.... Youtube? Some of those videos both scare me and make me laugh so hard my wife has to check on me.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

I love Youtube. I watch all sorts of videos of people doing things and browse over the information as i would a manual. Then i come up with my own way to do it. Ive learned how to weld a nut to a broken exhaust stud to back it out, it works perfect never would have thought of that, i learned to grind out the ID of a pinion bearing as a "checker" when setting up axles, there's always some neat tricks you can pick up, but never think any video is going to be step by step correct.

Its good to see things apart ahead of time for those of use who arent career mechanics

 

[Cruiseomatic]

I love Youtube. I watch all sorts of videos of people doing things and browse over the information as i would a manual. Then i come up with my own way to do it. Ive learned how to weld a nut to a broken exhaust stud to back it out, it works perfect never would have thought of that, i learned to grind out the ID of a pinion bearing as a "checker" when setting up axles, there's always some neat tricks you can pick up, but never think any video is going to be step by step correct.

Its good to see things apart ahead of time for those of use who arent career mechanics

I do something similar. I'll watch every video I can find over a subject I'm not familiar with and then whatever technique is used the most is what I do or I'll come here and ask if its truck related. Saves on making so many posts and looking more stupid than I usually do already if I inform myself ahead of time. And a visual explanation is more helpful than words sometimes.

 

[typ4]

FYI, I have a dozen DB units in service in the field with no issues.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

Russ would definitely know, I had a bad experience with mine. It wasn't doa it just had a dead spot every few dozen starts it'd take a few tries to engage. They did send me a replacement but I didn't trust it enough to install it.