electricall gremlin?

im at a loss guys. Im finally ready to turn my new motor over but when i turn the key im getting nothing.

Heres what ive done so far. I tested the battery myself and took it to the auto parts store, read 13v good battery. Took my starter to the ap store and the same thing it kicked on just fine. left me assuming that the problem is the solenoid but ive tried three solenoids and im getting nothing. When my last solenoid went bad it was at least making a click noise but im not even getting that and the ones ive tried are brand new.

with the key turned to on im getting lights, wipers etc so the harness is getting power. i took my volt meter and the battery, alternator and the right side of the solenoid are getting 12.5-13 volts, but the left side of the solenoid which goes to the starter is reading a big fat zero. What the hell am i doing wrong?

As far as i know the battery cables are correct. postive cable from +terminal to the right side of the solenoid. the - term cable is grounded to the body. Why is the left side of the solenoids not getting power?

im going to mess with it tomorrow and see what i can figure out. time to call it a night.

like the picture donivan shows above solenoid needs to be grounded,check that also

If you do find a bad solenoid, I switched over to a more modern style from the mid 80's, I like the posts on it better.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/BWD1/S5049/01931.oap?year=1985&make=Ford&model=E-150%2BEconoline&vi=1111239&ck=Search_01931_1111239_2527&pt=01931&ppt=C0330

Not sure what kind of charger you have but if you have one with a starting function you can hook it up directly to the starter and plug it in safely from afar. Also, not sure how old your cables are but you might want to check their resistance/capacitance if they are old, possibly replace them. Starters have a real low resistance, about 1/2 ohm, so it wouldn't take much resistance in the wire to take current away from it.

Figured it out, thanks Donivan66.

I had everything wired up just fine, BUT did not have the solenoid itself grounded. I do not have the dog house in so the solenoid was just floating. I grounded it to the floor this morning and Wala something happened.

New problem though is the starter kept turning after I took the key out meaning the solenoid is bad. Which is most likely my falt considering I did not ground it in the 1st place....

switched back to my old solenoid and the problem is fixed. Engine is trying to turn over and the starter is no longer freely spinning. Now to get this baby to run!

Make sure your starter solenoid is grounded. I used Bed-liner on my doghouse and it would not turnover. Then it dawned on me a Ford solenoid must have a body ground. I ran a ground strap and problem solved. Worth a try, good luck.

fyrchief65 wrote:Make sure your starter solenoid is grounded. I used Bed-liner on my doghouse and it would not turnover. Then it dawned on me a Ford solenoid must have a body ground. I ran a ground strap and problem solved. Worth a try, good luck.

yep, read above. i figured out that was the problem last night and took care of it 1st thing this morning. thanks for the tip.