Truck went dead today...(starter went dead)

[kenh]

Well not completely dead. 100 miles from home in a strange town with no support from a buddy. Everything worked but the starter. Not even a click! Wiggled a bunch of wires. Found a plug wire cookin' on the header but could not get the starter to turn. Looked under the dash for the neutral switch, didn't find it but wiggleded more wires..... NOTHING!

I just set in the truck in frustration and out of spite tried to start it about 5 minutes later. FIRED RIGHT UP!!!

Damn! I'm thinking it has to heat related but not sure where to start looking. Possibly the starter solenoid???

Rant over

Ken

 

[RawbDidIt]

Well not completely dead. 100 miles from home in a strange town with no support from a buddy. Everything worked but the starter. Not even a click! Wiggled a bunch of wires. Found a plug wire cookin' on the header but could not get the starter to turn. Looked under the dash for the neutral switch, didn't find it but wiggleded more wires..... NOTHING!

I just set in the truck in frustration and out of spite tried to start it about 5 minutes later. FIRED RIGHT UP!!!

Damn! I'm thinking it has to heat related but not sure where to start looking. Possibly the starter solenoid???

Rant over

Ken

Did anything else come on? Had similar symptoms with a loose battery connection, could be that, could be corrosion in the starter wire under the insulation, could be loose connection to starter. Unlikely for it to be heat related, I'd lean more toward weak connection, check grounds as well.

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[BNielsen]

Well not completely dead. 100 miles from home in a strange town with no support from a buddy. Everything worked but the starter. Not even a click! Wiggled a bunch of wires. Found a plug wire cookin' on the header but could not get the starter to turn. Looked under the dash for the neutral switch, didn't find it but wiggleded more wires..... NOTHING!

I just set in the truck in frustration and out of spite tried to start it about 5 minutes later. FIRED RIGHT UP!!!

Damn! I'm thinking it has to heat related but not sure where to start looking. Possibly the starter solenoid???

Rant over

Ken

I had this same issue happen on my truck, does the truck have an Interstate battery in it?
In my truck it turned out to be the battery failing internally resulting in the truck to go completely dead.

 

[df2x4]

I had this same issue happen on my truck, does the truck have an Interstate battery in it?
In my truck it turned out to be the battery failing internally resulting in the truck to go completely dead.

I had this same issue with an Optima yellow top once. IIRC it was a side terminal connector that snapped internally according to the guy at my local battery shop. It would make enough contact to occasionally start the truck and the voltage looked fine on a multimeter, but sometimes it would act completely dead on startup. Radio and lights still worked though.

 

[454cid]

Did it die while running or is it just not restarting? If it just wont start try tapping on the starter while the key is being turned.....its probably brushes or soliniod contacts.

 

[Andrew7]

Did anything else come on? Had similar symptoms with a loose battery connection, could be that, could be corrosion in the starter wire under the insulation, could be loose connection to starter. Unlikely for it to be heat related, I'd lean more toward weak connection, check grounds as well.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

My 93 C3500 7.4 has a starter problem related to heat. The longer the trip the less the starter wants to fire. It’s a newish starter. I’m going to try a new starter cellenoid.

 

[stutaeng]

OP stated everything else worked, so likely not a battery? But maybe low amperage causes starter not to engage? That's a possibility.

Did you check the starter relay? Tap the starter when it happens or better yet, check for power at starter with test light...

 

[RawbDidIt]

My 93 C3500 7.4 has a starter problem related to heat. The longer the trip the less the starter wants to fire. It’s a newish starter. I’m going to try a new starter cellenoid.

I've had that as well with a dying starter, however it's not *typically* an on/off problem. That points me to a connection related issue. Not saying it can't be, just that one is more likely than the other in my experience.

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[RawbDidIt]

OP stated everything else worked, so likely not a battery? But maybe low amperage causes starter not to engage? That's a possibility.

Did you check the starter relay? Tap the starter when it happens or better yet, check for power at starter with test light...

Now that you mention it, when "everything works" is that to say nothing turns off when you turn the key to "start"? If so, that would point to the ignition switch.

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[df2x4]

OP stated everything else worked, so likely not a battery? But maybe low amperage causes starter not to engage? That's a possibility.

Did you check the starter relay? Tap the starter when it happens or better yet, check for power at starter with test light...

The issue I had with that Optima did exactly what he described, radio and lights still worked. My amplifiers even kicked on. It just wouldn't deliver enough current to make the starter do anything most of the time. I agree that it's not very likely, but a battery could cause this.