E150 - Lots-O-Rain - NO Start!

[leroge]

2001 E150 XLT.....turn of the key and a single 'click'...no start. Vehicle has been in rain and humidity for three days. Not the usual multiple click with low battery power condition...just a single click and nothing! Battery power gauge looks OK.

Please HELP!!!
Roger

[rockwood84]

on a ford a single click is usually the starter .have seen the starter pop the bendix out but not turn over the motor.first step go and get the battery load tested and if it checks good then take the starter off and use a pair of jumper cables to check it. hook the ground cable to the starter and negative post of the battery.hook one end of the hot cable to the hot post of the battery.now touch the hot cable to the hot bolt of the starter the bendix should pop out and the gear turn. if the gear does not turn then the starter is bad.if it does then its the selinoid.

[leroge]

..well, it stopped raining and sure enough the starter works! No problem for months until the first cold spell....then click, click and nothing! Seems temperature and humidity are causing some kind of start / solenoid problem.

Start is less than a year old so I am reluctant to take it back to the repair shop for fear they'll say its some other kind of problem....so if its the starter I need to confirm it.

Any ideas?

[rockwood84]

have you tried taking the starter off and use a pair of jumper cables to jump it and see if the starter is working correctly. to do this put the black cable on the - [negative] post.hook the other end of the black cable to the starter which you can just lay it on the ground and hook the red [hot] to the hot post and touch the hot cable to the hot post of the starter which will move a little so put your foot on it. the gear should pop to the end then the gear should turn if it doesn't pop then turn then the starter is bad. and believe me they sell bad starters every day even brand new ones.

[Scrapper]

yes i would take starter off and check it to see if it's kicking to fly wheel to turn. it maybe you got a bad starter also.

[leroge]

...problem went away then it returned....weather turned cold. I am reluctant to take the starter off.....so can I disconnect the battery and use an auxiliary power ( a jump battery ) supply to test the starter while it is installed?

I had thought the problem was related to my security system which is having some problems....so I'm about to remove the security module and jump the power wires to it. It seemed that when I took the module inside at night, I didn't have any problems starting the car the next morning. Sounds strange but true.

My suspicion is that the 'new' ( one year ) starter and solenoid is bad...but still under a one year warranty!

Thoughts?

[Scrapper]

i dono about that i would leave battery hooked up and put the jump start on it and see if it kicks out. or just take starter back out because if you had battery checked and it is good it is in your starter anyway.

[Scrapper]

i dono about that i would leave battery hooked up and put the jump start on it and see if it kicks out. or just take starter back out because if you had battery checked and it is good it is in your starter anyway.

[rockwood84]

if you leave the starter on how you gonna see if it isn't turning? but the module starting the truck when it was kept warm and dry says that the module could be bad and the starter is good. how old is the module?

[Scrapper]

if you leave starter on it is going to spin or kick out and if it kicks out it should start or the starter is junk.