John Hirsch
Registered User
Hi all,
New to the forum but I’ve been lurking since 2014 when I got my ‘85. Usually I’m able to find what I need on here without posting but this one I can’t figure out.
It’s an 85 F250 6.9 4x4 with a 4 speed.
I use it on my farm with occasional road driving usually between fields. Before this it was an excavating company yard truck for a number of years.
I barely used it in 2018. Maybe until August when one day after loading it up in the field I went to start it to drive it back to the barn I just got a couple clicks and then the battery died. So my wife towed me back with a tractor.
I tried starting it once the season was over about a month ago. Couple clicks and the lights dimmed then it seemed like the battery was losing charge really quickly. Put a jumper on it, got that rapid clicking like the batteries were going dead. Lights all dimmed and the tachometer shot up to max. Then I couldn’t get it to click or anything.
Today my dad was giving me a hand tinkering with it and when I was jiggleing random wires the tach went down to zero. Only when the tach is at zero does it click, otherwise it does nothing with the key in the start position but dim the lights. So I was thrilled that we sorta narrowed it down. Traced the issue down to one of the wires coming off the starter relay? Not the one on the side of the fender but the one on top of the wheel well that has the little plastic job on it that says “do not start.” Pulled the one maroon? wire off it and the tach would jump to max, put it back on and the tach went down to zero. At max turning the key just made the lights dim but didn’t click or anything.
When turning the key it clicked rapidly. So we put the jumper box back on thinking maybe it just needed a bit more juice to kick over the starter. With the jumper box on it just clicked rapidly and then the tach shot back up to max. Tried taking that wire on and off again and it still stayed pegged to max. Checked all connections, cleaned a lot of sludge and corrosion. No such luck.
That’s where we’re at. Going to see what my mechanic thinks on Wednesday when he’s back from the holiday weekend. Don’t want to sink a lot of time and money into it. It’s a beat up old rig that I want to put a dump bed on this winter if I can get this figured out.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again everyone!!
New to the forum but I’ve been lurking since 2014 when I got my ‘85. Usually I’m able to find what I need on here without posting but this one I can’t figure out.
It’s an 85 F250 6.9 4x4 with a 4 speed.
I use it on my farm with occasional road driving usually between fields. Before this it was an excavating company yard truck for a number of years.
I barely used it in 2018. Maybe until August when one day after loading it up in the field I went to start it to drive it back to the barn I just got a couple clicks and then the battery died. So my wife towed me back with a tractor.
I tried starting it once the season was over about a month ago. Couple clicks and the lights dimmed then it seemed like the battery was losing charge really quickly. Put a jumper on it, got that rapid clicking like the batteries were going dead. Lights all dimmed and the tachometer shot up to max. Then I couldn’t get it to click or anything.
Today my dad was giving me a hand tinkering with it and when I was jiggleing random wires the tach went down to zero. Only when the tach is at zero does it click, otherwise it does nothing with the key in the start position but dim the lights. So I was thrilled that we sorta narrowed it down. Traced the issue down to one of the wires coming off the starter relay? Not the one on the side of the fender but the one on top of the wheel well that has the little plastic job on it that says “do not start.” Pulled the one maroon? wire off it and the tach would jump to max, put it back on and the tach went down to zero. At max turning the key just made the lights dim but didn’t click or anything.
When turning the key it clicked rapidly. So we put the jumper box back on thinking maybe it just needed a bit more juice to kick over the starter. With the jumper box on it just clicked rapidly and then the tach shot back up to max. Tried taking that wire on and off again and it still stayed pegged to max. Checked all connections, cleaned a lot of sludge and corrosion. No such luck.
That’s where we’re at. Going to see what my mechanic thinks on Wednesday when he’s back from the holiday weekend. Don’t want to sink a lot of time and money into it. It’s a beat up old rig that I want to put a dump bed on this winter if I can get this figured out.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again everyone!!
