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Back story: My '95 Ford Ranger 4.0 had a bad starter. It seized up and I bought a new one on my phone, picked it up, and threw it in right there in the parking lot like some kind of rear end in a top hat. Drove it home and it made some weird electrical noise, a bit crackly I thought. I warrantied it. The second one was worse, sounded like two gears knocking knuckles at full tilt. The starter is not disengaging? No - after a few days I learned that I bought the automatic version of the starter because I couldn't tell that there were two different types on my phone. Current problem: When I installed the new starter the wire that connects the relay (what some have been calling the solenoid - the thing that is near the battery mounted to the side of the truck) the wire that runs from there to the solenoid directly mounted to the top of the starter smoked and melted. It turned into a crispy strip of bacon from mouth to rear end in a top hat. Completely worthless. Why? I have no idea. I had the starter tested just to be sure - no problem there. I installed a new wire. I replaced the relay, I wired everything back up doing my best to make sure that nothing was touching. I cleaned the grounding point that takes the cable that runs from the negative battery terminal to the bottom mounting bolt of the starter. Nothing. If you turn the key you hear the tick of the solenoid engaging the starter, but it does not spin. If you hold the key too for a couple of seconds, the wire that was replaced gets hot. Hold it much longer and it'll crisp up again. What the hell is going on? Bad ground somewhere?
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Jul 31, 2015 22:36
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 09:59 |
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Does the voltage coming out from the firewall relay to the starter's solenoid terminal have the same voltage as the ignition switch voltage running into the firewall relay? If the solenoid is expecting 5V but getting 12 I could see it causing the wire crisping issue. That's an odd setup though, usually it's one or the other and the firewall setup is generally on much older cars than 95. Did the old bad starter have a solenoid mounted on it? Barring that, are you absolutely positive that the wire(s) are all hooked to the right terminals on the starter? You can at least verify the motor works by jumping from the battery directly to the motor terminal.
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Jul 31, 2015 23:03
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I have not checked voltages all the way down the line so I can't say on that. You're thinking the relay might be bad? I did just put a new one in, though it is possible. I will try to get out there maybe tomorrow to look. The old starter had a solenoid mounted directly above it. They looked identical if you don't count rust. I hooked everything up exactly the way it was on there originally - and have undone/redone it many times in this process. The wrong starter worked, in a sense, it started the truck - it just didn't disengage far enough. The new (correct) one was hooked up exactly the same, but it nuked that wire. A short must have appeared, I guess, but I can't figure out how/why/where. I was very careful after I rebuilt the wiring to install things correctly. I had the starter tested on the bench at Autozone just to be sure after all this happened. My first thought was that running the vehicle with the starter stuck on nuked the relay, but with a new relay the exact same thing happens. (I haven't been on the SA forums for a long time so I don't remember the rules on linking to other sites, but if you check at, say, autozone and look for the 95 4.0 starter motor that's the one.)
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Jul 31, 2015 23:12
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Enourmo posted:Barring that, are you absolutely positive that the wire(s) are all hooked to the right terminals on the starter? You can at least verify the motor works by jumping from the battery directly to the motor terminal. There's also a ground lug on the starter, if you hooked to that, you'd have a dead short from batt + to ground, which would crispify the cable. Barring that, it's possible that the solenoid/relay got hosed up, but those are usually only switching the hot side of the starter. If it went bad, it just wouldn't send power, or would send it all the time. There's a short somewhere...
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Jul 31, 2015 23:41
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There is a ground that runs from the battery to the bottom bolt on the starter. I had to replace the end on that wire because it was completely knackered. A bolt with a nut fixed to it passes through the starter and mounts to the case. The ground cable connects to that, and another nut goes over the top. I double checked that this is the correct wire with my brother this afternoon. I was on the bottom and him next to the battery. We traced it from top to bottom. As to the wiring on the solenoid itself (fixed to the starter), there is one longer bolt where the BIG cable (which powers the starter) connects. I believe there is another post with the same threading, but it would be hard to mistake one for the other. (Although if you're attaching them when the starter is mounted, you have to do that one blind.) The only logical conclusion that something is hooked up wrong (which I doubt), or there is a short. I'm trying to use logic to point me (close) to the short so I don't have to replace/test every component in the system. I'm not doing so well, though... Anyway, I appreciate the help so far.
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Jul 31, 2015 23:53
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 09:59 |
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*Edit: Everything I wrote is dumb. The wire running from the solenoid to the starter gets hot? Is there voltage at the end of that wire at the starter, can you load test the circuit with a bulb? If it's getting power the starter should be turning unless there is no power to turn the stater. There are 2 power connections at the starter, 1 is from the relay for the solenoid and 1 is from the battery for the starter itself, is the battery connection OK? Sheeple fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Aug 1, 2015 |
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Aug 1, 2015 20:57
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