Ignition miss now no start

[MNorby]

Got my truck running again aftrer sitting for the winter and went for a drive. It had a miss to it so I filled her back up with fresh fuel and replaced the fuel filter to be sure. Drove some more and still did it but not as bad. It got dark and I could notice the miss in the headlights when I laid into it hard the lights and everything would cut out with the motor. Finally it just died and saw a flash from under the dash and then I had absolutely nothing. Towed it to the shop and found my battery cable had burned through completely and broke the cable so replaced that and now I have my buzzers and everything when at the run possition but when I try to start it's bone dead and the wire coming off the big fuse link on the firewall gerts really hot. I pulled my starter and bench tested it today and it is fine thinking it might have shorted. Only other thing I can think of is the switch under the steering column since it only happens when you are trying to engage the starter. Anyone ever have a problem with this or have any other ideas? I though about checking resistance on the wire every little bit too but figured maybe someone has seen the same thing before. Thanks

 

[tRustyK5]

The short could have taken out the fusible link under the hood.

Rene

 

[MNorby]

If a fuse link blew it would be and open circuit. Since the wire is getting way hot and smoking its gotta be a short curcuit.

 

[tRustyK5]

It does sound like you have a short with the wire getting hot like that. I had a problem a few years back when the battery lead to the starter got a little loose, rotated and would short once in a while. Every time it did, stuff would blow up, headlights, dash lights...eventually killed the truck dead.

I ended up removing all the wires going to the starter, replacing the fusible link, insulating as best I could and re-wiring it.

I'd definitely start near where the original problem occurred and go from there. Wiring sucks...

Rene

 

[blackblazer717]

i agree wireing sucks, but i had a similar problem occur not too long ago with my buddys K-5 and it sounds to me like if the truck was miss fireing you could have had a intermittant ign. short and it may have esculated to something else, i.e fuel pump, ign. switch etc check all your fuses. ive heard of the internal voltage regulaters going in the alt. and doing weird stuff like that too. just my 2cents


luke

 

[MNorby]

I figure the missing was the battery cable arcing on the header then when it finally burnt threw it shorted something else out too but trying to figure what. it's gotta be something in the starter engage curcuit I figure since that wire only gets hot when trying to start but not when in the run/on position.

 

[diesel4me]

Purple wire engages the solenoid

Its a purple 12 Ga wire that activates the solenoid when you turn the key to "crank"--it goes from the ignition switch to the nuetral safety switch(on automatic trannys,which is located at the bottom of the steering colum--or on the clutch pedal if its a manual)from there it goes into the harness and ends up at the solenoid....but that wire is "hot" only when the key is turned to "start"...so I'd say you might have fried one of the red wires from the starter that has the 2 fusible links,or the same wire that goes to the juntion block near the brake booster on the firewall(another fusible link there too),or where it goes to the altenator(the big threaded stud)--it also goes into the cab to the ignition--since you saw a flash under the dash,thats where I'd start looking for shorts... good luck!

 

[MNorby]

I thought about the nuetral safety switch today too and put in another ign switch we had sitting in a junker truck and still nothing so used an old trick with using a little resistor load "thingy" and put it in line with the wire in different sports and used an amp meter to detect draw and isolated it from the middle of the fiewall area to the starter. Then..... DOH!!!!!!!!!!!! the purple wire was found smashed between the block and starter on the very corner..... I R DUM
Only like 5 hours messing with the thing to find a smashed wire. Live and learn right

 

[diesel4me]

At least its fixed!!!

Glad you found the problem!

Hearing the smashed wire reminds me of a nighmare job I did on an olds 307 motor I put head gaskets on--first 3 bolts snapped off in the block when I tried to take them out(I think they were already broken,no "snap" when I tried to loosen them!)--after drilling them for 2 hours,I got 2 out--the other was a lost cause--so I proceeded to do the head gasket,and hoped it would live with one bolt broken(I figured if it ran with 3 broken ones it would be ok! )--then , after I got the whole thing reassembled,I started it up,it ran fine,no leaks or anything--I notced I had left a ground wire off on the rear of the drivers side head--when I went to put it on,I noticed the nylon vacuum tubing for the hot water valve on the heater was smooshed between the head and the block!! --I wasnt about to eat the whole job and do it over again,and since it was a clunker that wasnt going to be driven much longer,and it didnt leak--I got out my cutting pliers and *snip*--Ok,your car is all set Ma'mm,come and get it!! --she ran it 2 years before it blew the tranny,and thank GOD it never leaked!!