another, another won't crank 7.3 thread

WasteOBurner

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hello. long time lurker. love the site, been on for a while. read hundreds of pages. really useful info, a lot of knowledgeable people.
So. I've had a total of three idi's, this is my latest. it's a 1989 Ford E350 Econoline diesel.
I do all the usual mods. electric fuel pump, manual glow plug, manual start button, windstar fan, 3g alternator etc. more than capable. this one has me stumped. bought it semi local, ******* trans fluid, leaking fuel all the way home about 200 miles. got it cheap. fixed the leaks, fixed the trans cooler lines. cleaned it up. got it ready to begin the mods. within a couple days, it started to crank slow. really slow. but would fire. moved the batteries to the back, new 1000cca's batteries. new 3/0 cable etc. new starter. new fender mount relay. here is where i'm at now. I removed a aftermarket alarm, did my best to trace wires and kept an eye on things regarding removing the alarm. since installing the new relay and starter I have a no crank, no wts, no dash and generally no power to the truck issue. I have good engine grounds to frame in two places. I made sure the relay had a good ground via fender. I have checked and rechecked via DMM for power at the solenoid, which I have... I jumped the big terminals. no crank. checked for power at gpr and have 12 volts?
no crank. no power. no horn. no hazards? stumped.
 
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franklin2

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Does your heater blower and wipers work? Those get power from the ignition switch. If they are dead, then check the yellow wire that is hooked to the starter solenoid mounted on the pass side inner fender(thats on a truck, not sure where it is on a van). There is a fusible link out there, see if it's good.

Power comes from the hot side of the solenoid and runs in on a yellow wire or wires, and feeds the ignition switch and also the hot all the time parts of the fuse box.
 

WasteOBurner

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Does your heater blower and wipers work? Those get power from the ignition switch. If they are dead, then check the yellow wire that is hooked to the starter solenoid mounted on the pass side inner fender(thats on a truck, not sure where it is on a van). There is a fusible link out there, see if it's good.

Power comes from the hot side of the solenoid and runs in on a yellow wire or wires, and feeds the ignition switch and also the hot all the time parts of the fuse box.

thanks for the quick reply. fusible links seem ok, i'm getting power to the gpr. I may have the power relay wiring wrong. been looking at diagram's. when i replaced the power relay I went from 3 terminals to 4 terminals. I think I need to have a dedicated ground from one of the smaller terminals?
 

franklin2

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Glowplug relay has a separate feed from the solenoid. Do your wipers, heater blower, radio, etc. work? You need to see if you have power in the cab and to the ignition switch. from there it goes back out through the neutral safety to the starter for cranking and power to the injection pump to run.
 

WasteOBurner

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Glowplug relay has a separate feed from the solenoid. Do your wipers, heater blower, radio, etc. work? You need to see if you have power in the cab and to the ignition switch. from there it goes back out through the neutral safety to the starter for cranking and power to the injection pump to run.

no power to cab. except to gpr/gpc been troubleshooting all morning. no power at all. except at starter and hot side solenoid. for reference. i have a 10 gauge black wire with yellow stripe. two 12 gauge yellows, and a 14 gauge black with orange stripe on the hot side. there is also a 10 gauge black with green stripe, with what looks like a deutsch (sp.) connector that may terminate on the ground?
 

WasteOBurner

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so. I have an update. got power to the cab, but only through a seperate and temporary test battery.( bypassing the starter and my installed starting batteries.) I have the power relay clicking, the fss clicking the gpr/gpc clicking. ( the starter will also crank when i do use this temp battery.) I suspect it's a ground issue?
 

Danielle

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Well congrats on the newest truck and looks like you will have no problems getting it all fixed up :)

Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk
 

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