fields_mj
Full Access Member
Been dealing with this for a little while now. I have an oil leak somewhere at the rear of the engine. I've never had it fixed because of the cost associated with pulling the engine to get to it. The leak finds its way down to my starter, and so my starters only last 12 to 18 months. I generally get them off ebay for under $100, so I figure I can go through a lot of them before I equal the cost of fixing the leak. Given the trucks age and condition, I'm never sure if I have another year left in it or not anyway....
I digress. Short version of the problem. My truck won't start. Won't turn over fast enough. Brand new starter (put on last night). Previous starter showed same problems and was also brand new (less than 1 week) but suffered a premature mechanical failure. Had batteries checked last week. One is really good (830 cca), the other is questionable but they still call it good (780cca). Been watching the battery gauge during start up for the last week. Every day it gets a little lower while the GPs are heating up. Now it barely registers while they are on, and when they shut off, I only come up a little bit. While the truck is running, the meter is at the same place it always is. While running at idle (50~1000 rpm), if I put a volt meter between 2 battery terminals, I get a little over 14 volts. I clean the battery terminals (both halves on both poles on both batteries) every time I disconnect them. Installed a brand new + battery cable a month ago.
My drive too and from work is 35 to 40 min each way. Last night I drove 40 min from work to pick the kids up from daycare. Starter had mechanical failure at start up, so I had to have a pull start at the daycare. From there I drove to the parts store and left it running for 15 min while I was inside trying to get another starter. They still hadn't replaced the stock, so I was out of luck on that one. Drove 15 miles (hwy) up to see my mechanic about a fuel leak, but he wasn't home. Drove 15mi back to town, and went over to Autozone to see if they had a starter in stock, which they did. Idled another 15 min in their parking lot, and then 2 miles to the house before shutting it down. So the truck ran for 40 min, was off for 30 min or so, and then ran for another 2 hours before shutting down. One would think the batteries would have a pretty good charge by that point. Got home, got the kids inside, let the dogs out and such, changed cloths and went to work on the truck. Took 2 hours to swap out the starter including clean up, a few interruptions with the kids, and some time spent on the battery connections checking for any possible problems. New starter worked, but had a hard time turning the engine over with any RPM. Battery gauge was hardly registering. Didn't bother putting a meter on the batteries. It was getting late (9:30) and I needed to get inside to get the kids ready for bed. So I grabbed the charger, set it at 12 amps, and hooked it up to the passenger side battery connections. Left it hooked up all night. This morning (6:30 - 9 hrs of charging at 12 amps) I bumped it up to 75 amps before I hopped in the truck. When I turned the key, the battery gauge barely moved. After several seconds, the GPs kicked off and the gauge came up just a tad. Engine would turn over, but just like the night before. RPMs were very slow and couldn't start.
Thoughts on where to look? I have a couple of ideas, but since 9hrs on the charger had absolutely no impact, I'm not convinced that my ideas are relevant.
Thanks in advance,
Mark
I digress. Short version of the problem. My truck won't start. Won't turn over fast enough. Brand new starter (put on last night). Previous starter showed same problems and was also brand new (less than 1 week) but suffered a premature mechanical failure. Had batteries checked last week. One is really good (830 cca), the other is questionable but they still call it good (780cca). Been watching the battery gauge during start up for the last week. Every day it gets a little lower while the GPs are heating up. Now it barely registers while they are on, and when they shut off, I only come up a little bit. While the truck is running, the meter is at the same place it always is. While running at idle (50~1000 rpm), if I put a volt meter between 2 battery terminals, I get a little over 14 volts. I clean the battery terminals (both halves on both poles on both batteries) every time I disconnect them. Installed a brand new + battery cable a month ago.
My drive too and from work is 35 to 40 min each way. Last night I drove 40 min from work to pick the kids up from daycare. Starter had mechanical failure at start up, so I had to have a pull start at the daycare. From there I drove to the parts store and left it running for 15 min while I was inside trying to get another starter. They still hadn't replaced the stock, so I was out of luck on that one. Drove 15 miles (hwy) up to see my mechanic about a fuel leak, but he wasn't home. Drove 15mi back to town, and went over to Autozone to see if they had a starter in stock, which they did. Idled another 15 min in their parking lot, and then 2 miles to the house before shutting it down. So the truck ran for 40 min, was off for 30 min or so, and then ran for another 2 hours before shutting down. One would think the batteries would have a pretty good charge by that point. Got home, got the kids inside, let the dogs out and such, changed cloths and went to work on the truck. Took 2 hours to swap out the starter including clean up, a few interruptions with the kids, and some time spent on the battery connections checking for any possible problems. New starter worked, but had a hard time turning the engine over with any RPM. Battery gauge was hardly registering. Didn't bother putting a meter on the batteries. It was getting late (9:30) and I needed to get inside to get the kids ready for bed. So I grabbed the charger, set it at 12 amps, and hooked it up to the passenger side battery connections. Left it hooked up all night. This morning (6:30 - 9 hrs of charging at 12 amps) I bumped it up to 75 amps before I hopped in the truck. When I turned the key, the battery gauge barely moved. After several seconds, the GPs kicked off and the gauge came up just a tad. Engine would turn over, but just like the night before. RPMs were very slow and couldn't start.
Thoughts on where to look? I have a couple of ideas, but since 9hrs on the charger had absolutely no impact, I'm not convinced that my ideas are relevant.
Thanks in advance,
Mark