Ranger No Crank (Replace Wiring?)

[backporch]

Retested the small starter wire. was 11.9V at crank position, battery at 12.0V. Going to trickle charge the battery. The battery is only a week old and I am surprised it has a low voltage. I connected it last week to start the truck, no crank (only the click) so I left it disconnected for a week.

I also verified that I could spin the motor with a socket.

When the heavy gauge starter or ground wires corrode, is that typically at the ends?

I was considering putting a permanent cable wire from my alternator mount bolt to battery ground. Would it make sense to also install a relatively heavy gauge wire to the starter from the battery positive? Looks like the factory wire is about 8mm, maybe a 1/0 guage wire.

 

[RonD]

The .1 volt drop, 12.0 to 11.9, is not a good sign, the voltage draw with key in START(no starter motor) is minimal, so battery is weak

New battery may be bad or volt meter reads low
12.8-13.0 volts is new battery
12.5v is 3 years old
12.3v is 5/6 years old and time to shop for battery sales

12.2v and under can/will cause the "click, click, click", no start

You can cut the insulation from the ends of cables(razor knife) and cut it back about 4"
Look for whitish powder corrosion, if found, at either end, whole cable is bad
Tape wire back up if it looks OK

 

[backporch]

Thanks Ron. I will attack this over the weekend with a topped off battery.

 

[backporch]

Just noticed the small solenoid wire connector broke off. Was probably barely connected when I measured the voltage. I am going to find that wire in the harness and splice in a new wire and connector

I had the same problem with the original connector. They are fragile

 

[backporch]

Finally is working again !!

Ran a new wire with ring connector to the solenoid. Used a length of the same yellow/blue wire (12 gauge?) from a spare harness and spliced into wire harness coming from fuse block. Also cleaned all other connections

Not sure if it makes sense that a bad connector would be able to engage the solenoid gear but not get the starter turning but that seemed to be the fix. I think the connector was damaged from several starter swaps

 

[RonD]

Good work

Yes, if connector was marginal then it could hold solenoid/relay closed(one click) UNTIL starter motor tried to pull 60amps, then voltage drops in the whole system, which is normal, but at that point solenoid/relay opens so no starter motor